Giant sloths lived alongside humans in South America for millennia

 

Image courtesy if Mauricio Anton/Science Photo Library.

Joel Kontinen

When did giant slots live? New research shows that they lived with humans for thousands of years.  It seems that humans might have led to their extinction.

“Molecular dating methods has shown that several extinct creatures, such as giant sloths and mammoths, survived in South America much later than previously thought, raising questions about the root causes behind some of Earth’s most recent large animal extinctions.

“There is no consensus in the scientific community about the cause or causes that led to the extinction of megafauna in South America,” says Fábio Henrique Cortes Faria ”.

Source:

Taylor Mitchell Brown, 2025 Giant sloths lived alongside humans in South America for millennia | New Scientist  25 January