Here I am, situating myself in “giant sloth” position like my fossil friend here, a _Megalonyx jeffersonii_ knicknamed Sid. Dating from the Cenazoic Era’s Pleistocene Epoch (2.5 million – 12,000 years ago), this giant sloth was 9 feet 8 inches high (about 3 meters), making him “only” medium-height among the giant ground sloths. This exquisite fossil is one of about 2,000 items from the Zhul Museum, a small but impressive collection of fossilized animals, plants, and wood with a fantastic mineral collection to boot.
The Zhuls owned an art gallery in Manhattan in the late 20th century, and they eventually began collecting specimens from earth’s distant past for display. In 1991, they decided to retire in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and after they endowed a museum with their collection to New Mexico State University, which formally opened in 2014. If you are ever able to visit this part of the world, I highly recommend stopping in – I will put a link to the museum website in the comments.
Source(s): https://zuhlmuseum.nmsu.edu/.
