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An extinct terrestrial edentate mammal of the Cenozoic era in America, typically of very large size.
Order Xenarthra (or Edentata). See megatherium, mylodon
‘The first North Americans lived side-by-side with elephant-like mammoths and mastodons, giant short-faced bears, sabre-toothed cats, tree-sized ground sloths and heavily armoured glyptodonts.’
‘In North America these included mammoths and mastodon, giant ground sloths, and glyptodonts.’
‘Sabertooth tigers stalked giant ground sloths around the La Brea Tar Pits, and left behind their bones.’
‘We, furthermore, tested extracts from a cave bear from which endogenous bear sequences cannot be amplified and a Pleistocene ground sloth from South America using the same controls.’
‘Inside the caves here, you can virtually smell the dung of prehistoric mammoths and ground sloths.’