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Sloths are medium-sized South American mammals belonging to the families Megalonychidae and Bradypodidae, part of the order Pilosa. Sloths are herbivores, eating very little other than leaves. Image File history File links Two-toed_sloth_smithsonian. ...
Binomial name Choloepus hoffmanni Peters, 1859 The Hoffmanns Two-toed Sloth, Choloepus hoffmanni, is a species of Sloth from Central and South America. ...
Scientific classification or biological classification is how biologists group and categorize extinct and living species of organisms. ...
Phyla Porifera (sponges) Ctenophora (comb jellies) Cnidaria (coral, jellyfish, anemones) Placozoa (trichoplax) Subregnum Bilateria (bilateral symmetry) Acoelomorpha (basal) Orthonectida (parasitic to flatworms, echinoderms, etc. ...
Typical Classes Subphylum Urochordata - Tunicates Ascidiacea Thaliacea Larvacea Subphylum Cephalochordata - Lancelets Subphylum Myxini - Hagfishes Subphylum Vertebrata - Vertebrates Petromyzontida - Lampreys Placodermi (extinct) Chondrichthyes - Cartilaginous fishes Acanthodii (extinct) Actinopterygii - Ray-finned fishes Actinistia - Coelacanths Dipnoi - Lungfishes Amphibia - Amphibians Reptilia - Reptiles Aves - Birds Mammalia - Mammals Chordates (phylum Chordata) include the vertebrates, together with...
Orders Subclass Multituberculata (extinct) Plagiaulacida Cimolodonta Subclass Palaeoryctoides (extinct) Subclass Triconodonta (extinct) Subclass Eutheria (includes extinct ancestors)/Placentalia (excludes extinct ancestors) Afrosoricida Artiodactyla Carnivora Cetacea Chiroptera Cimolesta (extinct) Creodonta (extinct) Condylarthra (extinct) Dermoptera Desmostylia (extinct) Embrithopoda (extinct) Hyracoidea Insectivora Lagomorpha Litopterna (extinct) Macroscelidea Mesonychia (extinct) Notoungulata (extinct) Perissodactyla Pholidota Plesiadapiformes...
Families Bradypodidae Megalonychidae Cyclopedidae Myrmecophagidae The order Pilosa is a group of placental mammals, extant today only in the Americas. ...
Scientific classification or biological classification refers to how biologists group and categorize extinct and living species of organisms. ...
South America South America is a continent crossed by the equator, with most of its area in the Southern Hemisphere. ...
Orders Subclass Multituberculata (extinct) Plagiaulacida Cimolodonta Subclass Palaeoryctoides (extinct) Subclass Triconodonta (extinct) Subclass Eutheria (includes extinct ancestors)/Placentalia (excludes extinct ancestors) Afrosoricida Artiodactyla Carnivora Cetacea Chiroptera Cimolesta (extinct) Creodonta (extinct) Condylarthra (extinct) Dermoptera Desmostylia (extinct) Embrithopoda (extinct) Hyracoidea Insectivora Lagomorpha Litopterna (extinct) Macroscelidea Mesonychia (extinct) Notoungulata (extinct) Perissodactyla Pholidota Plesiadapiformes...
Scientific classification or biological classification refers to how biologists group and categorize extinct and living species of organisms. ...
Scientific classification or biological classification refers to how biologists group and categorize extinct and living species of organisms. ...
Families Bradypodidae Megalonychidae Cyclopedidae Myrmecophagidae The order Pilosa is a group of placental mammals, extant today only in the Americas. ...
A deer and two fawns feeding on some foliage In zoology, a herbivore is an animal that is adapted to eat primarily plant matter (rather than meat). ...
Sloths have made extraordinary adaptations to an arboreal browsing lifestyle. Leaves, their main food source, provide very little energy or nutrition and do not digest easily: sloths have very large, specialized, slow-acting stomachs with multiple compartments in which symbiotic bacteria break down the tough leaves. Sloths may also eat insects and small lizards and carrion. As much as two thirds of a well-fed sloth's body-weight consists of the contents of its stomach, and the digestive process can take as long as a month or more to complete. Even so, leaves provide little energy, and sloths deal with this by a range of economy measures: they have very low metabolic rates (less than half of that expected for a creature of their size), and maintain low body temperatures when active (30 to 34 degrees Celsius), and still lower temperatures when resting. The stomach (Gaster) In anatomy, the stomach (in ancient Greek στόμαχος) is an organ in the gastrointestinal tract used to digest food. ...
Common Clownfish (Amphiprion ocellaris) in their Magnificent Sea Anemone (Heteractis magnifica) home. ...
Subgroups Actinobacteria Aquificae Bacteroidetes/Chlorobi Chlamydiae/Verrucomicrobia Chloroflexi Chrysiogenetes Cyanobacteria Deferribacteres Deinococcus-Thermus Dictyoglomi Fibrobacteres/Acidobacteria Firmicutes Fusobacteria Gemmatimonadetes Nitrospirae Planctomycetes Proteobacteria Spirochaetes Thermodesulfobacteria Thermomicrobia Thermotogae Bacteria (singular: bacterium) are a major group of living organisms. ...
Orders Subclass Apterygota Symphypleona - globular springtails Subclass Archaeognatha (jumping bristletails) Subclass Dicondylia Monura - extinct Thysanura (common bristletails) Subclass Pterygota Diaphanopteroidea - extinct Palaeodictyoptera - extinct Megasecoptera - extinct Archodonata - extinct Ephemeroptera (mayflies) Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) Infraclass Neoptera Blattodea (cockroaches) Mantodea (mantids) Isoptera (termites) Zoraptera Grylloblattodea Dermaptera (earwigs) Plecoptera (stoneflies) Orthoptera (grasshoppers, crickets...
This page is about Lizards, the order of reptile. ...
Carrion is the carcass of a dead animal that becomes food for other scavenging animals such as hyenas or Tasmanian Devils. ...
Santorio Santorio (1561-1636) in his steelyard balance, from Ars de statica medecina, first published 1614 Metabolism (from μεταβολισμος (metabolismos)) is the biochemical modification of chemical compounds in living organisms and cells. ...
Physiology
Sloth fur also exhibits specialized functions: the outer hairs grow in the opposite direction to that of other mammals, i.e. pointing away from their extremities (so as to provide protection from the elements despite living legs-uppermost), and in moist conditions host two species of symbiotic cyanobacteria, which may provide camouflage. Their outer fur coat is usually a thick brown, but ocassionally wild sloths appear to have a green tinge to their fur because of the presence of these bacteria. The bacteria provide nutrients to the sloth, and are licked. Sloths have short, flat heads, big eyes, a short snout, long legs, and tiny ears. Common Clownfish (Amphiprion ocellaris) in their magnificent sea anemone (Heteractis magnifica) home. ...
Orders The taxonomy of the Cyanobacteria is currently under revision. ...
Their claws also serve as their only natural defence. A cornered sloth may swipe at its attackers in a usually futile effort to scare them away. Despite sloths' apparent defencelessness, predators do not pose special problems: in the trees sloths have good camouflage and, moving only slowly, do not attract attention. Only during their infrequent visits to ground level do they become vulnerable. The main predators of sloths are the jaguar, the harpy eagle, and humans. The majority of sloth deaths in Costa Rica are from sloths getting into electrical lines and from poachers. Despite their adaptation to living in trees, sloths make competent swimmers. Their claws also provide a further unexpected defence from human hunters - when hanging upside-down in a tree they are held in place by the claws themselves and do not fall down even if shot from below, thus making them a meaningless target to shoot. Binomial name Panthera onca (Linnaeus, 1758) The jaguar (Panthera onca) is a large member of the cat family found primarily in the warm regions of the Americas. ...
Binomial name Harpia harpyja (Linnaeus, 1758) The name harpy eagle usually refers to the neotropical eagle, Harpia harpyja (see below for other birds called harpy eagles). ...
Sloths move only when necessary and then very slowly: they have about half as much muscle tissue as other animals of similar weight. They can move at a marginally higher speed if they are in immediate danger from a predator, but they burn large amounts of energy doing so. Their specialized hands and feet have long, curved claws to allow them to hang upside-down from branches without effort. While they sometimes sit on top of branches, they usually eat, sleep and even give birth hanging from limbs. Sloths are herbivores, and generally eat leaves, especially those of the cecropia tree. Fruit flies are in their diet as well. Sloths have a very low metabolism and a low body temperature so their food and water needs are minimal. A sloth's stomach has many different compartments to help digest the tough plants they eat. In terms of their sleep, sloths are one of the somnolent animals ever, sleeping from 15 to 18 hours each day. They are particularly partial to nesting in the crowns of palm trees where they can camouflage as a coconut. They come to the ground, to urinate and defecate, only about once a week.
Infant sloths normally cling to their mother's fur, but occasionally fall off. Sloths are very sturdily built and very few die from the fall. In some cases they die from the fall indirectly because the mothers sometimes prove unwilling to leave the safety of the trees to retrieve them. Females reproduce one baby every year.
The living sloths belong to one of two families, known as the two-toed (Bradypodidae) and three-toed sloths (Megalonychidae). Both families have three toes: the "two-toed" sloths, however, have only two fingers. Two-toed sloths are generally faster moving than three-toed sloths. Both types tend to occupy the same forests: in most areas, a particular single species of three-toed sloth and a single species of the larger two-toed type will jointly predominate.
Although unable to survive outside the tropical rainforests of South and Central America, within that environment sloths are outstandingly successful creatures: they can account for as much as half the total energy consumption and two-thirds of the total terrestrial mammalian biomass in some areas. Of the five species, only one, the Maned Three-toed Sloth, has a classification of "endangered" at present. The ongoing destruction of South America's forests, however, may soon prove a threat to the others. Biomass is organic non-fossil material, collectively. ...
 Pale-throated Three-toed Sloth in a Costa Rican rehabilitation center. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2048x1536, 1343 KB)three toed sloth at a rehabilitation center in Costa Rica Photo by Connor Lee File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...
Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2048x1536, 1343 KB)three toed sloth at a rehabilitation center in Costa Rica Photo by Connor Lee File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...
Binomial name Bradypus tridactylus Linnaeus, 1758 The Pale-throated Three-toed Sloth (Bradypus tridactylus) is a sloth. ...
Extinct species Until geologically recent times, large ground-dwelling sloths of the Megatherium type lived in North America, but along with many other species they became extinct immediately after the arrival of humans on the continent. Much evidence suggests that the extinction of the American megafauna, like that of Australia, far northern Asia, and New Zealand, resulted from human activity. However, simultaneous climate change that came with the end of the last Ice Age probably played a role as well. Megatheria were a group of elephant-sized ground sloths that lived from 2 million to 8,000 years ago. ...
World map showing North America A satellite composite image of North America. ...
Megafauna are the large animals of any particular region or time. ...
Asia is the largest and most populous region or continent depending on the definition. ...
Classifications An ai (Bradypus torquatus) is a species of three-toed South American sloth. ...
Binomial name Bradypus torquatus Illiger, 1811 The Maned three-toed sloth, also known as an ai, Bradypus torquatus, is a species of three-toed South American sloth. ...
Binomial name Bradypus tridactylus Linnaeus, 1758 The Pale-throated Three-toed Sloth (Bradypus tridactylus) is a sloth. ...
Binomial name Bradypus tridactylus Linnaeus, 1758 The Pale-throated Three-toed Sloth (Bradypus tridactylus) is a sloth. ...
This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ...
[[{{{diversity_link}}}|Diversity]] {{{diversity}}} Binomial name Bradypus variegatus Schinz, 1825 Trinomial name {{{trinomial}}} Type Species {{{type_species}}} {{{subdivision_ranks}}} [[Image:{{{range_map}}}|{{{range_map_width}}}|]] Synonyms {{{synonyms}}} Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth, Bradypus variegatus, as suggested by their names, have only three toes on each foot, compared to the two-toed sloths, is a species of...
Binomial name Choloepus hoffmanni Peters, 1859 Hoffmanns Two-toed Sloth, Choloepus hoffmanni, is a species of Sloth from Central and South America. ...
Families Rathymotheriidae Scelidotheriidae Mylodontidae Orophodontidae Megalonychidae Megatheriidae Ground sloths are extinct edentate (Order Xenarthra) mammals that are believed to be relatives of tree sloths and three-toed sloths. ...
Families Cyclopedidae Myrmecophagidae Anteaters are the 4 mammal species of the suborder Vermilingua commonly known for eating ants and termites. ...
External links
References - Gardner, Alfred (November 16, 2005). Wilson, D. E., and Reeder, D. M. (eds) Mammal Species of the World, 3rd edition, p. 100-101, Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-801-88221-4.
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