ground sloth

noun

Updated on: 18 Mar 2018

Definition of ground sloth

: any of various often huge extinct American edentates related to the recent sloths

Recent Examples of ground sloth from the Web

That includes the bobcat and a giant ground sloth; the former is mummified and the latter is a life-size model of an animal extinct 11,000 years.

— scott craven, azcentral, "Grand Canyon Caverns: Arizona's deepest, darkest hotel room," 5 Mar. 2018
This dry, barren lakebed is known for its fossil riches; the remains of creatures up to 646 thousand years linger in its dusty layers, including birds, fish, mollusk and even mammals like camels, ground sloths and mammoths.

— maya wei-haas, Smithsonian, "Rare Mammoth Tracks Reveal an Intimate Portrait of Herd Life," 26 Feb. 2018
These species had evolved over millions of years to have their seeds eaten and spread around by ground sloths, glyptodonts, gomphotheres, (a family of mastodon-like creatures from South America), extinct horses, and other vanished megafauna.

— jacob mikanowski, The Atlantic, "Reconstructing Lost Worlds With Poop," 19 Dec. 2017
Extinct megafauna like the mammoth and ground sloth weren’t just hapless prey or passive victims of climate change.

— jacob mikanowski, The Atlantic, "Reconstructing Lost Worlds With Poop," 19 Dec. 2017
From that island continent through Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas, the close of the Ice Age 12,000 years ago saw the worldwide downfall of many large, charismatic creatures from the giant ground sloth to the beloved woolly mammoth.

— brian switek, Smithsonian, "Changing Climate, Not Humans, Killed Australia’s Massive Mammals," 26 Jan. 2017
In the Cenozoic era, prehistoric megafauna like mammoths and giant ground sloths would gobble the fruit whole and then travel long distances, before pooping out the seed and thus dispersing the trees.

— brian handwerk, Smithsonian, "Holy Guacamole: How the Hass Avocado Conquered the World," 28 July 2017
Across most of mainland North America, animals like giant ground sloths and mammoths went extinct about 10,000 years ago.

— National Geographic, "Watch Divers Find Sloth Fossils in Underwater Cave," 13 May 2016
Made of plastic resin, the new 8-foot-tall ground sloth skeleton with an outstretched set of claws dominates the center's floor space.

— chris mayhew, Cincinnati.com, "Science looms large as Big Bone welcomes giant sloth," 8 Sep. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'ground sloth.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.