Megalonyx leptostomus (narrow-mouthed sloth) Description
English: Detail of a mural by Jay Matternes at the Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument, Idaho, USA.
Date 28 April 2013, 09:55:31
Source http://www.nps.gov/hafo/naturescience/sloth.htm National Park service, USG
Author Jay Matternes
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Megalonyx_leptostomus.jpg
Megalonyx leptostomus — the narrow-mouthed sloth — is an extinct species of giant ground sloth that lived in North America during the Blancan-Nebraskan ages (about 3 to 1.2 MYA). The name "leptostomus" comes from Greek, leptonyx = lepto (narrow), stoma (mouth); thus, Megalonyx leptostomus literally means “big claw, narrow mouth”. M. leptostomus was about half the size of the later Megalonyx jeffersonii (Jefferson’s ground sloth). Superorder: Xenarthra, Order: Pilosa, Family: Megalonychidae, Subfamily: Megalonychinae, Genus: Megalonyx, Species: Megalonyx leptostomus Cope, 1893.