Giant ground sloth
Eremotherium laurillardi (formerly mirabile)
(Pleistocene, Daytona Beach, Florida)
HMNS R16

Giant ground sloths, relatives of the living South American tree sloths, lived across much of North America. The giant sloths disappeared along with the mammoths, mastodons, and many other large animals at the end of the Pleistocene Epoch.

One theory for this mass extinction blames a changing climate, specifically a shift to a warmer average temperature but with colder winters and warmer summers, which may have taken a toll on newly born animals.

Eremotherium was probably a browser and grazer, perhaps using its claws to dig up roots and tubers during dry spells.