Dr. Timothy Gaudin
Dr. Tim Gaudin, a UC Foundation professor in the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Department of Biology, Geology and Environmental Science, is a co-author of a new study on sloth evolution published in Science, one of the world’s most prestigious scientific journals.
Gaudin is one of only two known UTC faculty members ever published in Science.
The paper, a collaboration among researchers from around the world, explores how body size evolved across sloth species over millions of years. While seven sloth species exist today, more than 100 extinct genera once lived throughout the Americas.
“There’s an enormous radiation of extinct sloths that shows up in South America, probably very shortly after the dinosaurs went extinct,” Gaudin said.
Some of those extinct sloths were massive—comparable in size to a modern African elephant.
“They were about 15 feet tall and could stand up on their hind legs. They probably weighed about 6,000 kilograms,” he said.
The research team studied how body size changed through time, focusing on climate, movement and habitat. Tree-dwelling sloths were the smallest, semi-arboreal species were mid-sized and terrestrial sloths showed the widest size range.
For Gaudin, sloth research has defined much of his academic career and connected him with a community of other researchers.
This recognition by Science, which he described as “really important in the fossil history of South America,” is validation of years of work.
UTC College of Arts and Sciences Dean Pam Riggs-Gelasco emphasized the significance.
“Science is widely acknowledged as one of the top journals for disseminating significant scientific research,” Riggs-Gelasco said. “Papers selected for publication must pass through a rigorous editorial and peer-review process, and only papers that are influential in their fields and that substantially advance scientific understanding are selected for publication.
“As the premier journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Dr. Gaudin’s article in Science will be broadly disseminated to an international audience of scientists in all disciplines.”