Mummified Poop Reveals Ancient Sloth Ate Mormon Tea and Saltbush

An extinct giant sloth once used a spacious cave not just as a shelter but also as a massive toilet, leaving droppings on the cave floor whenever nature called. Chemical analyses of the fossilized poop, known as coprolites, revealed that the ancient sloths primarily chowed down on an orange-flowered perennial shrub known as desert globemallow (Sphaeralcea ambigua), a shrub called Mormon tea (Ephedra) and a drought-tolerant plant known as saltbush (Atriplex), said Ryan Haupt, who is leading the i