27-05-2025
10-foot-tall sloths with ‘large' teeth roamed modern-day Kansas. Now bones found
At the end of the Pleistocene Epoch, 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago, a ground sloth that stood 8 to 10 feet tall went extinct. Now, bones belonging to one have been found in Kansas.
A partial skull of the extinct sloth, known as Megalonyx jeffersonii, was found in Ellis County on the Great Plains, according to a study published May 26 in the peer-reviewed journal Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science.
The partial skull was made up mostly of braincase, and it provided a 'better understanding of the distribution of this species in Kansas,' the study said.
The ground sloth was 'a large, heavily built animal' with 'a large skull with blunt snout, massive jaw, well-developed chewing muscles, and large, blunt, peg-like teeth,' according to the Illinois State Museum.
Unlike modern-day sloths that typically stay in trees, this sloth spent most of its time on the ground, walking on its flat feet and at times standing on its hind legs, the Illinois State Museum reported.
They had 'very large claws on their forelimbs' and were 'covered with thick hair,' the museum said.
The age of the partial skull was not able to be determined, but because of its presence in the Peoria Loess sediment deposit, it's believed to be from the late Wisconsian between 21,000 and 12,000 years before present.
The research team included H. Gregory McDonald, Laura E. Wilson and Melissa Macias
Ellis County is about a 170-mile drive northwest from Wichita.
