Palaeontology

Giant prehistoric sloth unearthed in LA metro

By T.K. Randall
June 3, 2017 ·  4 comments

Sloths once grew to enormous sizes. Image Credit: CC BY 2.0 Geoff Gallice The discovery, which was made during excavations for a new transit project, included a femur bone from a giant sloth and a leg bone from a bison.

The fossils were found within sandy clay approximately 5ft beneath Crenshaw Boulevard.

The bone is from a Harlan's ground sloth, a mammal that roamed the Los Angeles basin 11,000 years ago https://t.co/fE8P3zHIxl

— NBC Los Angeles (@NBCLA) June 2, 2017

"Fossils periodically are found during excavation due to construction in the LA area," said Gary Takeuchi, collections manager at the La Brea Tar Pits and Museum. "These fossils would probably not have been found if it were not for this construction unearthing them."This isn't the first time prehistoric fossil remains have been found during excavation work either.

Back in April, the construction of a subway near the La Brea Tar Pits had to be halted so that palaeontologists could extract mammoth and camel bones.

Another haul of mammoth bones was also unearthed in the same area back in December 2016.

Source: Live Science | Comments (4)

Tags: Los Angeles, Giant Sloth