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- Shea Gunther
- Glyptodon. Glyptodons were enormous armored mammals that became extinct around 10,000 years ago. Roughly the size of a VW Beetle, the glyptodon were well-armored against attacks from predators.
- Argentavis. The Argentavis has the distinction of being the largest flying bird ever discovered. The massive bird could grow to be 24 feet, wingtip to wingtip, twice the size of the Andean condor, which is one of the largest birds in the world today.
- Paraceratherium. The Paraceratherium were enormous beasts that lived around 25 million years ago in what is now Asia (China, India, Kazakhstan, and Pakistan).
- Megalania. Megalania (Varanus priscus), whose name translates to "ancient great roamer," was a giant carnivorous goanna that may have grown up to 23 feet long and weighed more than 4,000 pounds.
- North American horses. European settlers introduced horses when they landed in the New World. But little did they know the thunderous sound of ancient horses' hooves once covered the continent.
- Glyptodon. Glyptodon looked like a supersize version of its distant relative, the armadillo. Like its cousin, Glyptodon protected itself with a shell made of bony plates.
- Mastodons. Mastodons (Mammut) entered North America about 15 million years ago, traveling over the Bering Strait land bridge, long before their relative, the mammoth, according to the Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre in Canada.
- Mammoths. Mammoths (Mammuthus) traveled to North America about 1.7 million to 1.2 million years ago, according to the San Diego Zoo. Although there are some anatomical differences between mammoths and mastodons, both are members of the proboscidean family.
- Paraceratherium
- Diprotodon
- Megatherium
- Glyptodont
- Palaeoloxodon
- Cotylorhynchus
- Anteosaurus
- Prionosuchus
- Dunkleosteus
- Jaekelopterus
The now extinct Paraceratherium was a hornless rhinoceros. It was one of the largest land mammals to have ever lived. This mammal lived from 34 million to 23 million years ago across Eurasia between modern-day China and the Balkan Peninsula. Paraceratherium may have weighed between 33,000 pounds to 44,000 pounds. The animal’s shoulder height measur...
The word Diprotodon mean “two forward teeth”. The Diprotodon was the largest marsupial to ever have walked on earth. The Diprotodon lived from about 1.6 million years ago until 46,000 years ago when it became extinct. The fossils of this Australian megafauna that resembles Kangaroo were found in many parts of Australia. The largest Diproton may hav...
The name Megatherium has a Greek origin meaning the “Great Beast.” This mammal also went by the name “the giant ground sloth” and it lived in South America from the early Pliocene period to the end of the Pleistocene period. At the time, the Megatherium was almost the size of an elephant and weighed approximately four tons. From head to tail, the a...
Glyptodontinae was a large armadillo that first lived in South America and spread to parts of North America. It became extinct during the last ice age. These animals had body armor that resembled that of a tortoise, however, the Glyptodont could not withdraw its heads. The Glyptodont’s tail also had bony rings that protected it from harm. Additiona...
Palaeoloxodon was a straight-tusked elephant that lived in Cyprus, Germany, Japan, India, Italy, England, and Malta. It became extinct 30,000 years ago. Palaeoloxodon namadicus species was the largest ever known land mammal. Recent analyses indicate that this animal is a close relative of the African forest elephant although previous such analyses ...
Cotylorhynchus belonged to the genus synapsids that lived during the Early Permian period in the present southern part of the North American continent. This animal was the largest earth vertebrate during its time although some sources suggest that it was aquatic or semi-aquatic. Cotylorhynchus had a bulky torso, small head, and barrel-shaped tail t...
Anteosaurus or an "Antaeus reptile" was a large carnivorous synapsid. This reptile lived in present-day South Africa between 266 and 260 million years ago. The Anteosaurus’ skull was long, (approximately 31 inches) and narrow. This non-mammalian synapsid grew up to lengths of between sixteen feet and twenty feet and weighed up to 1,300 pounds. The ...
Prionosuchus was an archegosaurian of the genus of large temnospondyl that lived during the Permian period and became extinct by the end of the period. The archegosaurs occupied the ecological niche of alligators and crocodiles and lived in South America, especially Brazil within a humid and tropical environment. Prionosuchus measured up to thirty ...
Dunkleosteus lived during the Late Devonian period (358-382 million years ago) and belonged to the genus of arthrodire placoderm fish. In Greek, the second part of the name Dunkleosteus (osteus) translates to “bone.” Species of this genus include some of the largest placoderms to ever live, most grew up to lengths of 19.7 feet and weighed up to 1.1...
The Jaekelopterus lived during the Early Devonian age and it was a giant predatory eurypterid which is a group of aquatic arthropods. This megafauna looked like a giant scorpion. Fossil remains of this animal indicate that it was between 7.5 feet and 8.5 feet long making it the largest arthropod ever discovered. According to analyses, the Jaekelopt...
- Mark Owuor Otieno
The extinction of the megafauna has been argued by some authors to be disappearance of the mammoth steppe rather than the other way around. Alaska now has low nutrient soil unable to support bison, mammoths, and horses. R. Dale Guthrie has claimed this as a cause of the extinction of the megafauna there; however, he may be interpreting it ...
May 14, 2018 · Humans were not responsible for the extinction of every last population of extinct megafauna. Many smaller populations went extinct before humans even colonized those areas, so clearly other factors were responsible. Some went extinct even before the LGM.
Nov 30, 2022 · The timing of human arrivals and extinction events is shown on the map below. Humans reached Australia somewhere between 65 to 44,000 years ago. 1 Between 50 and 40,000 years ago, 82% of megafauna had been wiped out. It was tens of thousands of years before the extinctions in North and South America occurred.
Jan 10, 2022 · Over 10,000 years ago, a large proportion of our planet was populated by large and even gigantic mammals: the megafauna. Whereas most of these animals became extinct in the late Pleistocene and ...
