First Mammoth, Then Whale, Now Sloth Found at Calif. Law School

San Diego Natural History Museum paleontologist Pat Sena
holds tip fragments of two giant ground sloth teeth.
Photo courtesy of Thomas Jefferson School of Law.

First it was a fossilized mammoth. Then a giant whale.

And now an ancient sloth has been discovered in an excavation at a building site for a law school named after a famous attorney and statesman known for his keen interest in paleontology. The approximately 600,000-year-old bones indicate that the animal may have been about been 10 to 12 feet long and six to eight feet tall, a Thomas Jefferson School of Law official reports in an e-mail.

It appears that the sloth could be a member of the species actually named after the former U.S. president himself, Jefferson's ground sloth.

Additional coverage:

Associated Press: "Dig this: Ice Age sloth latest fossil at SD site"

San Diego Union-Tribune: "Prehistoric bones of sloth found at East Village site"

ABAJournal.com: "Law School Construction Site Is Field of Dreams for Paleontologists"

Academy of Natural Sciences: "The Great Claw: More about Ground Sloths"

Last updated at 2 p.m. on March 11 to include link to Associated Press article.