Sloths can swim faster than they move on land.

Sloths are the default symbol for slow movement, so the water version feels wrong immediately. National Geographic notes that sloths are about three times faster in water than on land. That does not make them fast compared with aquatic animals, and it should not be stretched into shaky breath-holding claims. The clean surprise is simpler: the same body that looks painfully slow on the ground works better when buoyancy supports it. Water removes some of the gravity problem, and those long limbs become useful paddles. The slowest land mammal image has an aquatic exception.

1 discovery explored