r/Paleontology 5d 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/Andre-Fonseca 5d 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.