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Where did extinct ground sloths live in North America?
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sloth
Juvenile three-toed sloth (Bradypus) climbing a tree branch.
Extinct ground sloths were not native to North America; they originated in South America and migrated north during the Pleistocene Epoch after a land connection formed between the two continents.1
Once they arrived in North America, these mammals expanded their range significantly. Fossil evidence indicates that they inhabited diverse regions, reaching as far north as Alaska and southern Canada. These animals, which included giant species comparable in size to an elephant, eventually went extinct around the end of the last Ice Age, a period that also marked the arrival of humans in the region.21