Long before today’s tree-dwelling sloths, a 4-ton giant roamed South America — and it may have stood and fought like a bear.

An Ice Age giant was tumbling around North America during the Late Pleistocene. About the size of a bear, it was actually a kind of enormous sloth that had evolved to thrive in freezing conditions.

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Harlan's ground sloth fossil skeleton excavated and displayed at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles. Larisa DeSantis A two-toed ...

Imagine a sloth. You probably picture a medium-size, tree-dwelling creature hanging from a branch. Today’s sloths – commonly featured on children’s backpacks, stationery and lunch boxes – are ...

(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Imagine a sloth. You probably picture a medium-size, tree-dwelling creature hanging ...

Larisa R. G. DeSantis received funding from the National Science Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, and Vanderbilt University. DeSantis is also a research associate at the La Brea Tar Pits and ...