Earlier species are thought to have lived largely along the shore, but later species are seen to be almost as specialised as sea lions when it came to life in the ocean.В The Thalasoccnus genus went extinct roughly 3 million years ago, when warming temperatures and rising global sea levels wiped out the sea grass meadows they relied on for food. These creatures were more seal than sloth spending their days grazing in the sea grass beds off the coast of Patagonia. Whilst this little guy spends most of its time climbing amongst the mangroves of its island home, it has been known to swim short distances in search of a mate.ДЄll these sloths may be capable of swimming, but they canвЂ™t hold a candle compared to Thalasoccnus the marine sloth. Sadly, the only species of sloth that still exists in the Caribbean is the pygmy three-toed sloth on Isla Escudo de Veraguas. Pygmy? More like вЂfun size!вЂ™ Photo by Diario El Universo via Flickr

Thousands of years ago sloths populated many islands in the Caribbean from Cuba to Puerto Rico, and they got there by swimming. Now, I know what youвЂ™re thinking: вЂњThese are sloths of the flooded river, not sloths of the sea! The title lied!вЂќ Luckily for you, sloths are quite capable of transferring their skill to a more oceanic environment. Most impressively, due to their slow metabolism, sloths are capable of holding their breath for 40 minutes whilst underwater (a skill which they hopefully rarely have to use). They neednвЂ™t worry about their young either, as mother sloths can swim with their young safely clinging to their back. This is particularly useful in the Amazon where it floods yearly. Mainland sloth species donвЂ™t often need to use this little-known ability of theirs, but it does come in handy for when their forest floods and they need to get around.

Maybe we can rapidly evolve into water creatures. This is much faster than their usual speed of 4 meters a minute. In fact, theyвЂ™re actually much faster in the water than they are in trees, using their strong forelimbs to push their way through the water at a rate of 13 meters a minute (or less than 1km/h). Whilst this is still fairly accurate IвЂ™m here to tell you that thereвЂ™s so much more to them than meets the eye.ДЄs you may have guessed from the title, sloths are excellent swimmers. When we think of sloths, we picture slow moving, dopey mats of fur hanging in trees and posing for memes.

Sloth swimming