2. Biome
The suborder of Folivora
is the name for six
species of sloth, which
include four species of
three-toed sloths, and
two species of two-toed
sloths. They live in the
tropical rainforests of
South America and
Central America.
4. Food Web
Sloths mostly eat
leaves, but also eat
some insects and fruit.
Their main predators
are the harpy eagle and
the jaguar. The majority
of sloth deaths however
are caused by humans
through activities such
as poaching.
5. Competition
A sloth’s main source of food
are leaves, usually from the
Cecropia tree, and because of
this they do not have any real
competition for food, as the
leaves are in high supply in the
rainforests where they dwell.
Sloths will usually pick a single
tree where they will eat, and
sleep, as well as defecating at
its base, however the
abundance of Cecropia trees
means there is not territorial
competition between
individual sloths.
6. Biodiversity
The sloths of the Folivora
suborder are part of the
order Pilosa. This order also
includes the suborder
Vermilingua, which contains
several species of anteater.
Its next closest ancestor is
the armadillo, which is in the
order Cingulata. Together,
the Pilosa and Cingulata
orders form the Xenarthra
superorder.
7. Adaptations
Sloths have a variety of adaptations that help
them to survive. A physical adaptation is that
their fur grows in the opposite direction of
normal animals, which provides protection for
the sloth when it is hanging upside down from
a tree. It also camouflages them to hide them
from possible predators. Their claws are also
long and sharp to allow them to easily climb
and hang on branches. A physiological
adaptation of the sloth is that they maintain
very low body temperatures of between 30-34
C°. As the leaves that they eat contain few
nutrients and are tough to digest, they have
also developed large stomachs that can take
over a month to digest all their food. A
behavioural adaptation of sloths is that every
week they will descend from their tree to
defecate at the base of it. The feces will help
nourish the tree where the sloth finds its food,
allowing the tree to provide more food for the
sloth in the future.
8. Evolution
The common ancestor of all sloths, including
ground sloths, first emerged approximately 60
million years ago during the Paleogene. Since
then, there have been five families of sloth :
Bradypodidae, Megalonychidae,
Megatheriidae, Mylodontidae, and
Nothrotheriidae. Today, the only extant
species are in the Bradypodidae and
Megalonychidae families, with all the other
species being extinct ground sloths. The
family Bradypodidae contains four species of
three-toed sloths, which are the pale-
throated sloth (Bradypus tridactylus), the
brown-throated sloth (Bradypus variegatus),
the maned sloth (Bradypus torquatus), and
the pygmy three-toed sloth (Bradypus
pygmaeus). The family Megalonychidae
contains two species of two-toed sloths,
which are Hoffman’s two-toed sloth
(Choloepus hoffmanni), and Linnaeus’s two-
toed sloth (Choloepus didactylus).
9. Adaptive Radiation
Today’s two-toed and three-toed
sloths have several differences from
their common ancestor that allow
them to inhabit different niches,
other than number of toes. This
common ancestor lived about 35-40
million years ago. Two-toed sloths
have six cervical vertebrae, whereas
three-toed sloths have nine. Three-
toed sloths also have tails and longer
forearms, and two-toed sloths have
shorter necks and larger eyes. The
main thing this has changed between
the two types of sloths is that the
three-toed sloths tend to stay and live
in a single tree, whereas the two-toed
sloths will move through different
trees more often.
10. Primary And Secondary Succession
Sloths will only inhabit a
certain area if it contains the
right trees to sustain them. If
the trees where they find
their leaves are destroyed,
for example because of
deforestation, the sloths will
be unable to survive. If
however, primary or
secondary succession occurs
in an area near a sloth’s
current habitats, and the
required trees begin to grow
there, the sloth may be able
to survive in that new
habitat.
