Sloths, revisited

If you recall, back at the beginning of last semester, I blogged about sloths after James' question about their body temp and enzymatic activity. Well, still no answers on their enzymes, but I was surfing around and came across this article on sloths - primarily about their evolutionary history. I figured you guys are getting into the diversity of life on Earth and the various eras/epochs of the Earth's history and thought that this article fit right in. Don't get bogged down by unfamiliar terms the author uses to refer to other groups of animals - even without knowing these terms, the general gist should be clear.

Who knew there were once aquatic sloths? Or possible predatory sloths? Or that they once lived in colder areas? Our extant (the opposite of 'extinct') sloths seem pretty boring by comparison. Where's that time machine?

Ten Things You Didn't Know About Sloths