Toxodonts Traveled North

Not so very long ago, giant ground sloths trundled through the forests and over the grasslands of North America. Like the sabercats and mammoths of their time, the shaggy beasts and their armored glyptodont cousins were part of the recently-lost Pleisotcene megafauna. Yet the sloths and their kin had a very different backstory from the rest of the characteristic, charismatic megamammals that inhabited Ice Age North America.

Whereas mammoths and sabercats migrated in from Eurasia, and horses and camels evolved in North America itself, the sloths and glyptodonts were southern pioneers whose lineages had evolved in the “splendid isolation”, as paleontologist George Gaylord Simpson called it, of South American before the Isthmus of Panama closed the gap between the Americas around

DON'T MISS THE REST OF THIS STORY!
Create a free account to continue and get unlimited access to hundreds of Nat Geo articles, plus newsletters.

Create your free account to continue reading

No credit card required. Unlimited access to free content.
Or get a Premium Subscription to access the best of Nat Geo - just $19
SUBSCRIBE

Go Further

Subscriber Exclusive Content

Why are people so dang obsessed with Mars?

How viruses shape our world

The era of greyhound racing in the U.S. is coming to an end

See how people have imagined life on Mars through history

See how NASA’s new Mars rover will explore the red planet

Why are people so dang obsessed with Mars?

How viruses shape our world

The era of greyhound racing in the U.S. is coming to an end

See how people have imagined life on Mars through history

See how NASA’s new Mars rover will explore the red planet

Why are people so dang obsessed with Mars?

How viruses shape our world

The era of greyhound racing in the U.S. is coming to an end

See how people have imagined life on Mars through history

See how NASA’s new Mars rover will explore the red planet