Editing Ground sloth (section)

=== Mylodontidae ===
{{Main|Mylodontidae}}
[[File:Paramylodon fossil at Texas Memorial Museum.jpg|thumb|right|''[[Paramylodon harlani]]'', [[Texas Memorial Museum]], [[University of Texas at Austin]]]]
The [[Mylodontidae|mylodontid]] ground sloths together with their relatives the scelidotheriids form the [[Mylodontoidea]], the second radiation of ground sloths. The discovery of their fossils in caverns associated with human occupation led some early researchers to theorize that the early humans built [[corral]]s when they could procure a young ground sloth, to raise the animal to butchering size.<ref>A. S. Woodward (1900)</ref> However, radiocarbon dates do not support simultaneous occupation of the site by humans and sloths.<ref name = "explained">{{cite journal | last = Naish | first = Darren | title = Fossils explained 51: Sloths | journal=Geology Today | volume = 21 | issue = 6 | pages = 232–238 | publisher=[[Geologists' Association]], [[Geological Society of London]] and [[Blackwell Publishing]] | date = 28 Nov 2005 | url = http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/118652140/abstract | archive-url = https://archive.today/20121008120854/http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/118652140/abstract | url-status = dead | archive-date = 8 October 2012 | doi = 10.1111/j.1365-2451.2005.00538.x  | s2cid = 85808869 | access-date = 29 January 2009| url-access = subscription }}</ref> [[Subfossil]] remains like coproliths, fur and skin have been discovered in some quantities. The [[American Museum of Natural History]] has exhibited a sample of ''[[Mylodon]]'' dung from Argentina with a note that reads "deposited by [[Theodore Roosevelt]]".<ref name="Bell2002">{{cite journal |last=Bell |first=C.M. |title=Did elephants hang from trees? - the giant sloths of South America |journal=Geology Today |volume=18 |issue=2 |year=2002 |pages=63–66 (see p.&nbsp;66) |doi=10.1046/j.1365-2451.2002.00334.x|bibcode=2002GeolT..18...63B |s2cid=130426084 }}</ref><ref name = "TRCenter">{{cite web |url= https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/Research/Digital-Library/Record?libID=o211307|title= Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to George Herbert Sherwood|last= Roosevelt|first= T.R.|date= 1915-01-04|website= theodorerooseveltcenter.org|publisher= [[Dickinson State University]]|access-date= 2019-10-12}}</ref><ref name = "AMNH">{{cite web |url= https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/permanent/south-american-peoples/roosevelt-collection |title= Roosevelt Collections |website= amnh.org/exhibitions |publisher=[[American Museum of Natural History]] |access-date=2019-10-12}}</ref><ref name= "Warren2015">{{cite web |url=https://www.davidwarrenonline.com/2015/05/28/the-ground-sloth/ |title=The ground sloth |last=Warren |first=D. |date=2016-05-28 |website=Essays in Idleness |access-date= 2019-10-12}}</ref> Mylodontids are the only ground sloths confirmed to have had [[osteoderms]] embedded within their skin, though osteoderms were only present in a handful of genera and absent in many others.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=McDonald |first=H. Gregory |date=December 2018 |title=An Overview of the Presence of Osteoderms in Sloths: Implications for Osteoderms as a Plesiomorphic Character of the Xenarthra |url=http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10914-017-9415-8 |journal=Journal of Mammalian Evolution |language=en |volume=25 |issue=4 |pages=485–493 |doi=10.1007/s10914-017-9415-8 |s2cid=254697023 |issn=1064-7554|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

The largest mylodontid is ''[[Lestodon]]'', with an estimated mass of {{Convert|3400-4100|kg|lb}}.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Tomassini |first1=Rodrigo L. |last2=Montalvo |first2=Claudia I. |last3=Garrone |first3=Mariana C. |last4=Domingo |first4=Laura |last5=Ferigolo |first5=Jorge |last6=Cruz |first6=Laura E. |last7=Sanz-Pérez |first7=Dánae |last8=Fernández-Jalvo |first8=Yolanda |last9=Cerda |first9=Ignacio A. |date=2020-07-02 |title=Gregariousness in the giant sloth Lestodon (Xenarthra): multi-proxy approach of a bonebed from the Last Maximum Glacial of Argentine Pampas |journal=Scientific Reports |language=en |volume=10 |issue=1 |page=10955 |doi=10.1038/s41598-020-67863-0 |pmid=32616813 |pmc=7331707 |bibcode=2020NatSR..1010955T |issn=2045-2322|hdl=10261/233402 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>