Nothrotheriops

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Mammalia

Order: Xenarthra

Family: Nothrotheriidae

Genus: Nothrotheriops

Species: N. shastensis

               N. texanus

Temporal Range: 2.6 - 0.011 ma

It is a genus of Pleistocene ground sloth found in North America, from what is now central Mexico to the southern United states. This genus of bear-sized xenarthran was related ti the much larger and far more famous Megatherium which was from the family Megatheriidae 

It was one of the smallest ground sloth species, it reached 9 ft from head to tail and weighted 550 lb which is much smaller than some of its contemporary species such as the Eremotherium, which could easily weigh over two tons and be 20 ft long. It had large, stout hind legs and a powerful, muscular tail that it used to forn a supporting tripod whenever it shifted from a quadrupedal stance to a bipedal one.

This genus's lineage dates back to the Miocene The ancestors of Nothrotheriops migrated to North America from South America as part of the Great American Interchange about 2.6 million years ago.

The best known historical specimen was found in a lava tube at Aden Crater in New Mexico; It was found with hair and tendon still preserved. Rampart Cave, in the Grand Canyon, Arizona has a plentiful amount of the sloth's hair and dung which allowed the scientists both to use radiocarbon dating techniques to establish when it lived. The most recent credible dates from this and each of about half a dozen other southwestern caves are about 11,000 BP.

It behaved like all typical ground sloths of North and South America, feeding on various plants like the desert globemallow, cacti and yucca. It was hunted by various local predators. Like Smilodon, from which the sloths may have defended themselves by standing upright on hindlegs and tail and swiping with their long foreclaws, like its distant relative Megatherium. The same claws could also been used as tools to reach past the plant spines and grab softer flowers and fruits. Also the have had a prehensile tongue like a giraffe to strip leaves off branches.

This sloth is believed to have played an important role in the dispersal of Joshua tree,seeds. Preserved dung belonging to the sloth has been found to contain Joshua tree leaves and seeds, confirming that they fed on the trees. It has been suggested that the lack of this ground sloths helping to disperse the seeds to more favourable climates is causing the trees to suffer.