Harlan's Ground Sloth
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National Park Service White Sands U.S. Department of the Interior White Sands National Monument Harlan’s Ground Sloth Harlan’s Ground Sloth / Paramylodon harlani; Glossotherium harlani (NPS Photo) ne of the most bizarre animals from the Pleistocene epoch was the ground sloth. A combination of enormous oand unusual, these colossal, furry animals are related to modern sloths, armadillos, and anteaters. Contrary to the slow-moving tree sloths of today, some ground sloths could be as large as elephants! The Harlan’s ground sloth appearance and helps explain why Today, the only evidence of the (Paramylodon harlani, sometimes ground sloths are so unlike other ground sloth’s presence are confusing called Glossotherium harlani), stood North American animals. tracks and any other fossils they about 10 feet (three meters) tall when have left behind. What happened upright and weighed over a ton (about Once ground sloths reached North to these strange, fuzzy giants? Like 2,200-2,400 pounds or 1000-1090 America, new species of sloth many other ancient ice age mammals, kilograms)! quickly evolved, like the Harlan’s they went extinct towards the end of ground sloth mentioned previously. the Pleistocene epoch, about 12,000 Sheer size was not the only strange The Harlan’s ground sloth lived years ago. Scientists are not sure of part of a ground sloth’s appearance. throughout North America, in what the exact reasons why, but it may These giants were bulky, with short is now the United States and Central have been due to climate change, necks, powerful chests, and massive America. A herbivore that fed on human involvement, or possibly jaws. They had three claws per hand, grasses, shrubs, and flowering plants, both. Whatever the reason, the which they could use for digging, it used its stout snout and keen nose fact is that ground sloths perished grabbing, or defending themselves. to sniff for food. It lived in open- from Earth thousands of years ago, Under their coat of coarse, brown grassland habitats and fed mostly leaving behind only fossilized bones, hair, they had small, nickel-sized, on grass. Not a desert dweller, the dung, tracks, and their much smaller bony plates embedded in their skin. Harlan’s ground sloth stuck to areas relatives, the tree sloths. These so-called dermal ossicles with permanent water sources, like probably served as protective armor, rivers and lakes. similar to armadillos today. The ground sloth’s strange appearance During the Pleistocene epoch, the may be related to the fact that Tularosa Basin where White Sands ground sloths originated in South sits today was much wetter. A giant America, before the continent was lake called Lake Otero filled the connected to North America by way area, providing a water source that of Panama. This geographic isolation attracted many Pleistocene animals, may have contributed to this unusual including Harlan’s ground sloths. Revised 09/5/2016.