Morphometrics Research on Megalonyx Scapulae from the Tarkio Valley Ground Sloth Project

The University of Iowa Geoscience Department and Museum of Natural History are involved in a project recovering the remains of three 12,000 year old giant ground sloths (Megalonyx jeffersonii) from Tarkio Valley in southwest Iowa. This is the first time that adult and juvenile sloths have been found in association with one another. We have one adult and two juveniles of different sizes to study. This project has led to a better understanding of the Pleistocene extinction event, in which 40 large mammal species became extinct simultaneously, and of how ground sloths lived and interacted with one another.