Developments in Brief : Ohio Couple May Have Dug Up Ice Age Sloth

An archeologist says skeletal remains found in late 1985 when a couple began building a house in Fleming, Ohio, may be those of an Ice Age mammal known as a ground sloth.

Archeologist Robert Pyle of Morgantown, W.Va., said bones uncovered in Washington County by Ken and Terry Maze constitute one of the most significant prehistoric finds in national history.

The Mazes had spent the last 15 months trying to identify the bones and even considered throwing them away when Pyle identified them as the upper torso of a slow-moving mammal that once roamed North America.

“We knew these weren’t the bones of any domestic animal. But we couldn’t prove it,” said Terry Maze, who said she and her husband had been around farms for much of their lives.

She remembers a skull protruding from a “wet, bluish-colored soil” near what is now the foundation of their house atop a plateau near a county road. “I noticed this odd-shaped rock sticking out of a mound of dirt my husband had pushed over with the back hoe. It looked sort of interesting so I started digging around a bit and eventually pulled out the skull.”

As they continued digging, they found gigantic molar-like teeth 4 1/2 inches long, vertebrae the size of large saucers, stone-like ribs and leg bones with joints as big as softballs. She put the 33 bones in a burlap sack and nearly forgot about them.

Archeological authorities at Washington Technical College eventually put them in touch with Pyle. He said ground sloths were probably about 8 feet long and weighed about 300 pounds.