Slow going as giant sloth fossil exhumed

MEXICAN scientists said they have discovered the fossilised remains of a previously unknown species of giant sloth that lived 10,000 years ago and died at the bottom of a sinkhole.

The Pleistocene-era remains were found in 2010, but were so deep inside the waterfilled sinkhole that researchers were only gradually able to piece together what they were, the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) said.

Scientists have so far hauled up the skull, jawbone and a mixed bag of vertebrae, ribs claws and other bones, but the rest of the skeleton remains 50 metres under water, INAH said.

Researchers are planning to bring up the rest by next year to continue studying the find – including to estimate how big the animal was.

They have named the new species Xibalbaonyx oviceps, and nicknamed it “Pote”. An initial analysis suggests the sloth lived between 10,647 and 10,305 years ago, they said – an era when giant creatures of all kinds roamed the Earth.