Editing Ground sloth (section)

== Evolution ==
The earliest unambiguous fossil evidence of ground sloths comes from the early [[Oligocene]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Pujos |first1=François |last2=De Iuliis |first2=Gerardo |last3=Cartelle |first3=Cástor |date=March 2017 |title=A Paleogeographic Overview of Tropical Fossil Sloths: Towards an Understanding of the Origin of Extant Suspensory Sloths? |url=http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10914-016-9330-4 |journal=Journal of Mammalian Evolution |language=en |volume=24 |issue=1 |pages=19–38 |doi=10.1007/s10914-016-9330-4 |issn=1064-7554|hdl=11336/63466 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> Ground sloths had dispersed into the Caribbean already by 31 million years ago, as evidenced by a femur found in Puerto Rico.<ref name=":5">{{Cite journal |last1=Tejada |first1=Julia V |last2=Antoine |first2=Pierre-Olivier |last3=Münch |first3=Philippe |last4=Billet |first4=Guillaume |last5=Hautier |first5=Lionel |last6=Delsuc |first6=Frédéric |last7=Condamine |first7=Fabien L |date=2023-12-02 |editor-last=Wright |editor-first=April |title=Bayesian Total-Evidence Dating Revisits Sloth Phylogeny and Biogeography: A Cautionary Tale on Morphological Clock Analyses |journal=Systematic Biology |volume=73 |issue=1 |pages=125–139 |language=en |doi=10.1093/sysbio/syad069 |pmid=38041854 |issn=1063-5157|doi-access=free |pmc=11129595 }}</ref> During the [[Miocene]], sloths diversified, with the major families of sloths appearing during this period,<ref name=":5" /> with diversity waxing and waning over the course of the Miocene. Megalonychid and mylodontid sloths had migrated into North America by the Late Miocene, around 10 million years ago. At the end of the Miocene, ground sloth diversity declined, though their diversity would remain largely stable throughout the [[Pliocene]] and [[Pleistocene]] periods, up until their extinction. During the Pliocene and Pleistocene, as part of the [[Great American Interchange]], additional lineages of sloths migrated into Central and North America.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Varela |first1=Luciano |last2=Tambusso |first2=P Sebastián |last3=McDonald |first3=H Gregory |last4=Fariña |first4=Richard A |date=2019-03-01 |editor-last=Fieldman |editor-first=Matt |title=Phylogeny, Macroevolutionary Trends and Historical Biogeography of Sloths: Insights From a Bayesian Morphological Clock Analysis |url=https://academic.oup.com/sysbio/article/68/2/204/5098296 |journal=Systematic Biology |language=en |volume=68 |issue=2 |pages=204–218 |doi=10.1093/sysbio/syy058 |pmid=30239971 |issn=1063-5157|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Prior to their extinction, there were over 30 living species of ground sloths across the Americas during the [[Late Pleistocene]].<ref name=":4" />