Harlan's Ground Sloth

 

My Middle name and my grandmothers family was Harlan. Members of the family include a Senator and two Supreme Court Justices.  It is good to see that a Ground Sloth also received our name.

Craig Harlan Hullinger

Paramylodon harlani


Paramylodon (†Paramylodon Brown, 1903)

Order: Pilosa

Family: †Mylodontidae

Temporal range: endemic to North America during the Pliocene through Pleistocene epochs, living from around ~4.9 Mya–11,000 years ago

Dimensions: length - 20 feet, weight - 2,200 lbs. A typical representative: Megatherium harlani


Paramylodon measured about 3 m in length and weighed as much as 1,000–1,089 kg. It is known from North America deposits, including in Mexico and the United States and as far south as Guatemala, and often mistaken as Glossotherium. Currently there is just one recognized species, P. harlani, (Owen) 1840, which is commonly referred to as Harlan's ground sloth in honor of American paleontologist Dr. Richard Harlan who first discovered and described a lower jaw in 1835. Paramylodon exhibits the interesting characteristic of having had dermal ossicles, small bones embedded in the skin, presumably adding a degree of protection to the animal. This characteristic is also shared by the South American Mylodon.
Tags:oligocene, omnivorous, sloths, north america, paramylodon, central america, pleistocene, herbivorous