Sloth Socks

In 1935 C.L. Gazin, the curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Smithsonian in charge of the last excavations at the Horse Quarry in 1934, wrote a scientific paper describing the fossil sloth material from Hagerman. He originally referred to the Hagerman sloth as Megalonyx leptonyx (can you figure out what leptonyx means? - the clues are in the other scientific names used in this article - answer at the end). This sloth was found in Castle Creek, Owyhee County in the 1870's but is now considered to be the same as Megalonyx leptostomus. While no complete skeletons of the sloth have been found at Hagerman, we have a good variety of bones for comparison with other species of Megalonyx. These include lower jaws, isolated teeth, various leg bones and a complete hind foot. Sloth teeth are very distinctive since they lack the outer enamel covering present in other mammals' teeth. Because the teeth of sloths grow throughout the animal's life, they have no roots and have a simple cylinder shape. As the names suggest, the claws are large and have a distinctive triangular shape that makes them easy to identify.  Shipping Info