Quick Take
Tara Redwood School students were playing in a creek in the Santa Cruz Mountains last spring when they stumbled upon a surprise. The object turned out to be the first fossil sloth bone reported in Santa Cruz County.
Students from Soquel’s Tara Redwood School were playing in a creek while on a field trip in the Santa Cruz Mountains last spring when they stumbled upon what looked like a large stick.
“They were building a dam, looking for crawdads,” teacher Bryn Evans told KSBW-TV. “They were just in the mud and pulling things out and then one of them comes up and says, ‘This isn’t a stick, this is a bone.’”
The students brought the bone from a large animal to the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History. There, paleontology collections advisor Wayne Thompson identified the object as a fossil arm bone that appeared to belong to an ancient sloth, according to a museum news release.
Thompson sought the advice of experts, including paleontologist Melissa Macias, who confirmed that the bone was the left radius of a Jefferson’s ground sloth (Megalonyx jeffersonii). Her confirmation meant that the bone was the first reported fossil evidence of the sloth in Santa Cruz County.
“Megalonyx jeffersonii is one of the very first fossils documented in North America,” Macias said in a statement. “It’s just one of those iconic animals that more people should know about.”
The ancient Jefferson’s ground sloth is a distant cousin of modern-day sloths that live in Central and South America. They could grow up to nearly 10 feet long and could weigh between 2,200 and 2,425 pounds. While museum experts are working to determine a more specific age for the sloth, they know it’s between 11,500 and 300,000 years old.
The ancient sloth is rarely found in California but has been recorded in Shasta County and Los Angeles County, according to the museum.
The announcement of the sloth bone comes almost one year after a mastodon tooth was found on Rio Del Mar State Beach. Mastodons went extinct about 5,000 to 10,000 years ago.
“Fossils are a great way to engage people with the deep past,” Felicia Van Stolk, the museum’s executive director, said in a statement. “We’re so excited that young students made this important discovery that will continue to inspire generations of museum visitors and scientists.”
The bone will be part of the museum’s upcoming annual exhibit of science illustration. “The Art of Nature” is open starting Saturday and runs through May 26. Following the exhibit, the bone will be stored in the museum’s collections for use in research.
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