Paramylodon
harlani
Living sloths are medium-sized, very slow-moving,
arboreal mammals of South America & Mesoamerica. During the middle
& late Cenozoic, several large, ground-dwelling sloth species existed in
the Americas. Shown below is one of the giant ground sloths known from
the late Pleistocene of North America. This is Harlan’s ground
sloth, Paramylodon harlani (a.k.a. Glossotherium (Paramylodon)
harlani), which got to be 2 meters long.
Classification: Animalia, Chordata, Vertebrata, Mammalia, Xenarthra,
Phyllophaga, Mylodonta, Mylodontoidea, Mylodontidae
Paramylodon harlani Owen, 1840 - Harlan’s ground sloth skeleton
from the La
Brea Tar Pits (~uppermost Pleistocene) of Los Angeles, southern
California, USA.
(CM 10198, Carnegie Museum of Natural History,
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA)
Paramylodon harlani Owen, 1840 (above & below) - Harlan’s
ground sloth skull from the La
Brea Tar Pits (~uppermost Pleistocene) of Los Angeles, southern
California, USA.
(CM 10198, Carnegie Museum of Natural History,
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA)
Paramylodon harlani Owen, 1840 - reconstruction of Harlan’s ground
sloth (Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA).