Ground sloths become giants
Sloths abandon the trees and grow to the size of elephants across South America.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 15 million years
- Known to
- ± 2 million years
- Era
- Miocene, Cenozoic
Xenarthran sloths radiate through the Miocene into large terrestrial browsers, some reaching several tonnes, with massive claws for pulling down branches and dermal ossicles embedded in their skin as armour. They occupy the large-herbivore roles held elsewhere by ungulates. Marine sloths of the genus Thalassocnus also appear on the Peruvian coast, showing a progressive series of adaptations to feeding on seaweed and seagrass in shallow water.