SLOTH ICE AGE FULL

SLOTH ICE AGE FULL

Rissolo and colleagues began preparing for the effort to retrieve the pelvis a full year in advance. Its pelvis was the last major bone missing from its skeleton and a key component in reconstructing its likeness. Scientists named the giant ground sloth Nohochichak xibalbahkah, Mayan for “The great claw that dwells in the underworld.” Alive, it would have stood at six to seven feet on its hind legs and weighed an estimated 2,000 pounds. “The preservation is absolutely incredible.” “For a new species, it’s pretty good to have that much ,” said Chatters. With the bones in hand, researchers made a marvelous discovery: the sloth was a member of an entirely new species. Under the direction of Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) and the expert guidance of James Chatters and Blaine Schubert, paleontologists specializing in late-Ice Age species, divers removed all of the sloth’s bones save for a few vertebrae, an arm and its pelvis. New discovery (and a challenge) for scienceĬave divers discovered the giant ground sloth’s remains during initial dives into Hoyo Negro in 2007. Over the course of the expedition, the team would have to work across international lines and unite talents in paleontology, 3D-modeling, engineering and virtual reality to safely bring this fragment of history back to light. Rising sea levels had flooded the cave system at the end of the last Ice Age, making the pelvis’ retrieval impossible for all but the most experienced divers. In November 2019, a group of researchers including Rissolo and a cave diving team led by Alberto Nava set out to recover the giant ground sloth’s pelvis through a meticulously planned expedition. “The abundance, diversity, and integrity of Late Pleistocene fossils from Hoyo Negro give us a unique opportunity to reconstruct animal and plant life on the Yucatán Peninsula at the end of the last Ice Age,” said Rissolo.

Dominique Rissolo, a research scientist and archaeologist with UC San Diego’s Qualcomm Institute (QI), and colleagues have studied their bones for the past eight years to learn more about the region’s history. These days, Hoyo Negro is a morbid treasure trove for paleontologists: a collection of partially fossilized, Ice Age-era skeletons belonging to saber-tooth cats, several species of ground sloths, an extinct species of bear and Naia, a young woman who lived and died approximately 13,000 years ago. The impact would have killed it instantly.īrett Butler (front center), Jeffrey Sandubrae (left) and other members of the Qualcomm Institute's Prototyping Lab stand around the cradle that would ultimately carry the giant ground sloth pelvis to the surface. Sometime during its life, the sloth lumbered into a labyrinth cave system and wandered until it encountered the subterranean pit known today as Hoyo Negro, or “Black Hole.” Blind in the darkness, the sloth took a fatal step over the edge of the pit and plummeted nearly 100 feet. Approximately four feet across and weighing an estimated 80 pounds, it had once belonged to a giant ground sloth, an elephant-sized animal that roamed the ancient Americas alongside the saber-tooth cat and the woolly mammoth. Photo Credit: Sam Meacham, CINDAQįor thousands of years, the massive pelvis lay undisturbed at the bottom of the watery black pit. Cave divers carefully maneuver the giant ground sloth's pelvis through Hoyo Negro.

Sloth ice age