9 Animal Species That Were Once Bigger Than Humans

8. Sloths

Sloths are almost universally associated with sluggishness and laziness. The most common subspecies is the three-toed sloth, which has a length of 45 centimeters, and can weigh a maximum of 10lbs. It is one of the slowest animals on the planet, travelling at 0.24km/h, or 0.15 miles per hour. It is quite possibly the least-threatening mammal in the world, despite some of them having long claws. It€™s amazing how much a creature can change over a period of 5 million years. The Giant Ground Sloth, an elephant-sized monstrosity, once roamed the forests of what is now Chile. Measuring up to 6 meters long and weighing up to 4 tonnes, these things were giant herbivores that could€™ve stood on strong hind legs to reach the top of trees. No one expects modern sloths to be dangerous or intimidating in any way. It seems that evolution really gave their species the short end of the stick, causing the once gigantic beasts into small, impossibly slow creatures. It also doesn€™t help their kind that they share their name with one of the seven deadly sins, which is supposed to represent laziness. Clearly nature didn€™t do sloths any favors at all.