6-Foot-High Giant Tunnels Found in South America Dug by Ancient Megafauna Giant Sloths

Experts assert that ancient megafauna giant sloths were responsible for the 6-foot-tall giant tunnels that were discovered all over South America.

Giant Tunnels in South America

In South America, several enormous tunnels were found around the turn of the century, the year 2000. Following an investigation, the scientists who made the discovery concluded that neither a geological process nor any human activity produced them.

According to Discover Magazine, geology professor Heinrich Frank noticed a peculiar hole at a construction site as he drove by it on the highway. Frank went back to the tunnel that the excavation had revealed and wriggled inside.

It was a 15-foot tunnel. Frank was able to determine that the tunnel was not the result of geological forces. A much larger hint could be found at the end of the tunnel. The ceiling was covered in a smattering of enormous claw markings.

There is no geological process in the entire world, according to Frank, that can create long tunnels that have circular or elliptical cross-sections, branches, rises and falls, and claw marks on the walls. According to Frank, he has observed dozens of caves with inorganic origins, and in each of these instances, it is evident that no digging animals played any part in their formation.

Giant Claw Marks From Megafauna Giant Sloths

The tunnel is believed to have been built by extinct megafauna, as are many other tunnels or caves that he and others found in Brazil and Argentina. Huge sloths most likely dug the tunnels in Frank's case between 8 and 10,000 years ago. The main distinction between these creatures and modern sloths is that they were about the size of an African elephant.

Researchers didn't have the chance to visit that strange cave in Rondonia again until 2015. According to Discover Magazine, it turned out to be the very first paleo burrow found in the Amazon.

Frank and his team discovered over 1,500 beast-made tunnels in the Rio Grande do Sul region, with the longest measuring 2,000 feet and being 6 feet tall, according to Interesting Engineering. Teams of sloths probably worked on it for several generations.

Stalked Megafauna

There is evidence that early humans may have stalked and hunted giant sloths despite their enormous size. In a 2018 study that was published in the journal Science Advances, a team examined 200 fossilized footprints of humans and sloths that were discovered in Utah and discovered that they were proof that early humans purposefully stalked and even harassed sloths, if not hunted them.

This is due to the fact that when sloth trackways are connected to human tracks, they exhibit signs of evasion as well as a defensive behavior.

Although it is possible that the interaction was playful, the paleontologists concluded that the best way to interpret human interactions with the giant sloths is in terms of hunting, harassing, and/or stalking. With their powerful arms and razor-sharp claws, which gave them a deadly reach and a distinct advantage in close-quarters encounters, sloths would've made formidable prey, IFLScience reports.