New discoveries could rewrite the history of early Americans — and the 4-ton sloths they lived with
CBSN
Sloths weren't always slow-moving, furry tree-dwellers. Their prehistoric ancestors were huge - up to 4 tons - and when startled, they brandished immense claws.
For a long time, scientists believed the first humans to arrive in the Americas soon killed off these giant ground sloths through hunting, along with many other massive animals like mastodons, saber-toothed cats and dire wolves that once roamed North and South America.
But new research from several sites is starting to suggest that people came to the Americas earlier - perhaps far earlier - than once thought. These findings hint at a remarkably different life for these early Americans, one in which they may have spent millennia sharing prehistoric savannas and wetlands with enormous beasts.
The details of the murder are still shocking today, nearly three decades later. On Dec. 26, 1996, the 6-year-old daughter of John and Patsy Ramsey, a well-to-do couple living in Boulder, Colorado, was found dead in the family's basement. JonBenét Ramsey, an outgoing child who performed in local beauty pageants, had been bludgeoned and strangled.