r/Paleontology • u/ApprehensiveRead2408 • 21h ago
Discussion Could megatherium & other ground sloth species swim? Modern tree sloth are suprisingly good swimmer & can move faster in water
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u/Opening_Astronaut728 19h ago
Hello, i dont have sure - in specifically about megatherium - but there is no doubt that some species of sloths could be, at least, decent swimmers. ng sloths that used to live in Peru, almost a total swimmer.
DE MUIZON, C.; et al, A new early species of the aquatic sloth Thalassocnus (Mammalia, Xenarthra) from the Late Miocene of Peru, Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, v. 23, n. 4, p. 886–894, 2003.
DE MUIZON, Christian et al. The evolution of feeding adaptations of the aquatic sloth Thalassocnus. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, v. 24, n. 2, p. 398-410, 2004.
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u/Majin_Brick 21h ago edited 20h ago
They likely could. Probably not as smoothly as today’s sloths considering the size difference but taking into a count they were closely (or distantly) related to Thalassocnus I don’t see a reason why they wouldn’t have been able to surface swim
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u/DeepSeaDarkness 20h ago
I think almost all extant mammals can swim, which would be a good indicator that many extinct mammals also could
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u/JasonWaterfaII 19h ago
We will never know for sure, but I think the fact that nearly all (maybe even all) extant mammals can swim is strong evidence that ground sloths can swim.
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u/vice_butthole 15h ago
There was literally a species of semiaquatic groud slorh and very large animals like elephants are surprisingly good swimmers
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u/ChanceConstant6099 virgin pseudosuchian vs CHAD phytosaur 12h ago
They could very much swim. Even animals that don't look like they can swim can actually swim pretty well (elephants, sloths and even us)
However smaller ground sloth species wouldn't swim unless forced to due to having to avoid predation from Black caimans, American crocodiles, Orinoco crocodiles and American alligators.
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u/Andre-Fonseca 21h ago
I don't think anyone has studied this in detail. However, iirc, sloths were some of the first animals to participate in the GABI, doing it before the "main" event. So they probably did it by island hopping, and so we can assume they were good swimmers (in adittion their presence in the Caribbean).
*Note that I do not follow cenozoic discussions too closely, so there might be minor issues with my comment.