ground sloth

noun

|Updated on: 18 Aug 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

Photo by Kelly Shea and Brendan Banks | Illustration by Jordan Sondler Sixty-six million years ago, ancient giant ground sloths consumed avocados whole, traveled long distances, and, ahem, fertilized and dispersed the seed.

— margaret lin, Curbed, "The avocado toast home ownership meme, explained," 15 May 2018
Their tracks are preserved in the alkali flats of the valley floor—mammoth, dire wolf, saber-toothed cat, North American camel, and giant ground sloth, all dating back to the last ice age.

— hayden carpenter, Outside Online, "Our Next National Park Could Be in New Mexico," 3 July 2018
Their presence, though, could tell paleontologists more about how giant ground sloths behaved and socialized.

— kiona n. smith, Ars Technica, "Over 10,000 years ago, weapons at White Sands were aimed at giant sloths," 26 Apr. 2018
More recently, a team of scientists, whose study was published this year in the journal Science Advances, found fossilized human footprints surrounding circles of giant ground sloth tracks—rare evidence of a Pleistocene hunt.

— hayden carpenter, Outside Online, "Our Next National Park Could Be in New Mexico," 3 July 2018
Humans drove North American ground sloths to extinction around 11,000 years ago.

— ben guarino, BostonGlobe.com, "Fossil footprints show a human chasing an extinct giant sloth," 26 Apr. 2018
Sometime between 10,000 and 15,000 years ago, a giant ground sloth—a hairy, lumbering beast that weighed as much as a metric ton—wandered along a lakeshore in what is now southern New Mexico.

— sid perkins, Science | AAAS, "Ancient human-sloth hunt hinted at in 15,000-year-old footprints," 25 Apr. 2018
More than 10,000 years ago, a band of hunter-gatherers chased a group of giant ground sloths along the shores of an ancient lake, and their footprints still preserve the story.

— kiona n. smith, Ars Technica, "Over 10,000 years ago, weapons at White Sands were aimed at giant sloths," 26 Apr. 2018
The largest burrows, however, were likely made by giant ground sloths, extinct cousins of modern sloths that could grow to more than 1,700 pounds.

— National Geographic, "6 Amazing Structures Built by Surprising Creatures," 7 May 2018

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.