“It was also a family affair as we see lots of evidence of children’s tracks and assembled crowds along the edge of the flat playa.” “We also see human tracks on tip toes approach these circles was this someone approaching with stealth to deliver a killer blow while the sloth was being distracted? We believe so.” “The tracks show the sloth was turning and swinging at the stalker,” Professor Bennett said. But in addition to tracks of humans following the sloth, there are more human tracks a safe distance away telling the scientists that this was a community action making use of distraction and misdirection to gain the upper hand in close-quarter combat. Image credit: National Park Service.Īt 7-8 feet (2.1-2.4 m) tall, tightly muscled and swinging fore legs tipped with wolverine-like claws, the sloth would tear apart any hunter on direct approach. Human footprint inside giant sloth track at White Sands National Monument. “We see interesting circles of sloth tracks in these stalked trackways which we call ‘flailing circles.’ These record the rise of the sloth on its hind legs and the swing of its fore legs presumably in a defensive motion.” “The ancient humans stalked the sloth,” added team leader Professor Matthew Bennett, of Bournemouth University, UK. “The White Sands trackway shows that someone followed a sloth, purposely stepping in their tracks as they did so,” said team member David Bustos, naturalist with the National Park Service. “The sloth tracks - 1.2 to 2 inches (3-5 cm) deep, 12 to 22 inches (30-56 cm) long, and 4 to 14 inches (10-35 cm) wide - are readily distinguished from human tracks based on their elongated kidney-shaped tracks and claw marks.” “The site consists of more than a hundred sloth and human tracks,” the researchers said. The team found and analyzed fossilized footprints of ancient humans - adults and children - at White Sands National Monument in New Mexico and those human footprints were actually inside footprints of a giant, razor-clawed ground sloth ( Nothrotheriops or Paramylodon sp.). Image credit: Alex McClelland, Bournemouth University. White Sands footprints tell the story of a group of humans tracking and hunting a giant ground sloth.

Ice age sloth