Ground Sloths facts

While investigating facts about Ground Sloths Size and Ground Sloths Still Alive, I found out little known, but curios details like:

Avocados used to be eaten by giant ground sloths and were saved from extinction by humans

how big were ground sloths?

Sloths take a shit once a week. This is the only reason they will leave their tree, and when they do, it's pretty much a life or death situation for them as predators can easily catch them off guard while they are on the ground.

What do ground sloths eat?

In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across answering what did giant ground sloths eat. Here are 32 of the best facts about Ground Sloths Ice Age and Ground Sloths Extinction I managed to collect.

what did ground sloths eat?

Avocados are optimally adapted to be eaten and digested by an animal far larger than any alive today in the Americas. It is theorized they originally evolved their current form to allow their seeds to be spread by animals like the extinct giant ground sloth.
The only animal large enough to eat avocados and spread its seed was the ground sloth
When human beings arrived in the Americas, 14,000 years ago, they found ground sloths the weight of elephants; a beaver eight feet from nose to tail; armadillos like small cars; giant lions and sabertooths". NYT
Many North American plants have fruit, spines, etc. believed to be adapted for an extinct giant mammal (megafauna) like mammoths and ground sloths
There were once elephant-sized ground sloths called megatherium. They could weigh up to 4 tonnes and be as tall as 6 m (20 ft) in length from head to tail.
Sloth is arboreal (lives in the trees) creature that will rarely move down to the ground. It will leave the safety of a tree once per week to urinate and defecate. When it is on the ground it becomes easy prey for predators.
Megatherium, a prehistoric ground sloth the size of a rhinoceros, may have created burrows like colossal gophers
No native animals presently eat the fruit of the Osage Orange tree. Scientists believe that the seeds were once dispersed by giant ground sloths and mastodons.
Armor-Plated "Ground Sloths" Were 20 Feet Long and Weighed Over 4 Tons
Thomas Jefferson wrote a paper on a giant ground sloth fossil and told Lewis and Clark to keep and eye out for a giant clawed beast.

ground sloths facts — What do giant ground sloths eat?

Why did ground sloths go extinct?

You can easily fact check why do sloths go to the ground to poop by examining the linked well-known sources.

If you see a sloth walking on the forest ground you can be absolutley certain it's pooping, it's the only time they leave the trees and they only do it once a week, but they dump about 1/3 of their bodywieht while at it

Literally no one knows why a sloth takes a crap on the ground. - source

The Giant Ground Sloth (Megatherium) These giants typically stood at seven metres tall and weighed seven tons. They were active in North America until as recently as 11,000 years ago but appear to have been killed off either by Ice Age related changes of climate or by human hunting activity. - source

There used to be Ground Sloths in North America bigger than Elephants

When did ground sloths go extinct?

Giant Ground Sloths (Megatherium sp.), which inhabited the Americas until about 11,000 years ago, could reach a height of 20ft (6m) or about as tall as a large T. rex

How big were giant ground sloths?

Some plants have an evolutionary left over from when large herbivores like the giant ground sloth roamed the earth. The plant grew these thorns as a defense and with no evolutionary pressure to get rid of them, they still have them today even though the sloths are long gone.

The Megatherium, a Giant Ground Sloth, Was One of the Biggest Land Mammals of It's Time Only Being Exceeded by Mammoths and Paraceratherium

Because sloths are held in place by their hooked claws, they don't fall to the ground when shot by poachers.

The existence of the now extinct giant ground living sloth. it lived on the american continent along with people and where the size of an elephant.

Until around 4,000 years ago, there was a population of dwarf ground sloths that lived in Cuba.

When did giant ground sloths go extinct?

Ground sloth's dung is still intact in some undisturbed caves, despite going extinct 11,000 years ago

Avocado pits are so big because they were intended to be swallowed by an extinct animal called the giant ground sloth

There used to be ground walking giant sloths weighing up to 4 tonnes and measuring up to 6m in length from head to tail.

How did ground sloths become extinct?

The closest biological relative of today's sleepy "tree sloths" was the 5-ton, 17-foot-tall "ground sloth"

When human beings arrived in the Americas, 14,000 years ago, they found ground sloths the weight of elephants; a beaver eight feet from nose to tail; armadillos like small cars; giant lions and sabertooths".

In Brazil there are dozens of huge tunnel complexes called paleo-burrows. They were dug by prehistoric species such as giant ground sloth and there are claw marks all over the walls. They are often large enough for an adult man to stand upright in them.

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