Long before today’s tree-dwelling sloths, a 4-ton giant roamed South America — and it may have stood and fought like a bear.

Researchers in Costa Rica have unearthed fossils from a mastodon and a giant sloth that lived as many as 40,000 years ago, officials announced Friday, calling it the biggest such find here in decades.

Sloth World is rapidly approaching a grand opening on Orlando’s International Drive, its executives say. The 7,500-square-foot facility will be home to more than 40 sloths living in a ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Harlan's ground sloth fossil skeleton excavated and displayed at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles. Larisa DeSantis A two-toed ...

Fans of the movie franchise Zootopia know that sloths make the perfect DMV (Department of Mammal Vehicles) workers.

Credit: flickr You wouldn’t expect it from an animal that barely moves, but sloths are excellent swimmers. They use a sort of doggy paddle and can hold their breath for up to 40 minutes. Water ...

The apparent docility and friendliness of “smiling” sloths have made them tourist darlings, but have also put a target on their backs. The rise in trafficking of these animals led the governments of ...

Defecating exposes sloths to predators on the jungle floor. An unexpected ally benefits, and returns the favor. A brown-throated three-toed sloth peers over a tree's buttress root while defecating on ...

Scientists have analyzed ancient DNA and compared more than 400 fossils from 17 natural history museums to figure out how and why extinct sloths got so big. Most of us are familiar sloths, the ...

Sloths always seem to have a relaxed smile on their lips, making them appear friendly and cute. The natural habitat of these leisurely tree dwellers is the tropical rainforests of Central and South ...

Larisa R. G. DeSantis received funding from the National Science Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, and Vanderbilt University. DeSantis is also a research associate at the La Brea Tar Pits and ...