Question about that 'giant sloth' theory from the La Brea Tar Pits

I was honestly skeptical when I first heard about the idea that giant ground sloths were actually scavengers, not just leaf-eaters. Even my professor at the UCLA dig back in 2017 dismissed it as 'too out there.' But then I saw the CT scan data on those claw marks found on a saber-tooth cat skeleton at the Page Museum, which had matching sloth tooth wear patterns. They found three distinct bite marks that lined up perfectly with sloth jaw structure, and the isotope analysis from the bones showed meat protein traces. Has anyone else changed their mind on this after seeing hard evidence, or do you still think they were pure herbivores?

3 comments

3 Comments

colethomas17d ago

Those three matching bite marks are honestly the kind of evidence that's hard to ignore. I remember reading the initial paper that came out in 2019 about the CT scans, and the way they overlayed the sloth jaw model onto the saber-tooth skeleton was wild. @the_viola's bread trick actually reminds me of how they used plaster casts of the bite marks to make exact replicas and then matched them to a 3D printed sloth skull from the museum's collection. They even found trace amounts of collagen from the cat's bone embedded in the tooth wear of the sloth specimen they had on display. It's not just a theory anymore when you've got physical proof like that sitting in a drawer somewhere.

carr.abby17d ago

Even my lazy sloth-brain can't argue with 3 matching bite marks.

the_viola17d ago

Wait, @carr.abby you ever try to match the bite marks on all three with a piece of bread or something? I had a similar thing happen with my dog and a couch cushion, and the only way I knew it was her was because the teeth spacing lined up with a cracker she'd gnawed on. It's a solid method for proving who the culprit is, honestly. Just snap a photo and compare the distance between the marks side by side.