Giant ground sloth

It's another Clades post! This time a more stem-group clade, looking at one group within the mammal group Xenarthra. The name of the group Xenarthra refers to the unusual joints in their vertebrae. They generally have reduced dentition, and likely evolved as digging or burrowing instect eaters. As a group, xenarthrans are a group found entirely in the Americas, first appearing in the Palaeocene in South America and spreading northward, even into North America during the Pliocene's Great American Interchange.…