Megafauna facts for kids
The term is most used for the Pleistocene megafauna – the large land animals of the last ice age, such as mammoths. It is also used for the largest living wild land animals, especially elephants, giraffes, hippopotamus, rhinoceros, elk, condors, etc.
Its use is connected with the discussion about the Holocene extinctions after the ice age. Most of the large land animals which were alive 12,000 years ago are now extinct, and there is much discussion as to what has caused this. The two main theories are hunting by humans, and climate change. Together, these reasons are enough to explain why these previously successful animals are now extinct. Elephant birds on Madagascar were certainly hunted to extinction, as were the Moas in New Zealand. Archaeological sites with evidence of moa hunting are all over New Zealand. The moas became extinct about five hundred years ago. The moas had survived being hunted by Haast's Eagle, but they did not survive being hunted for food by the Maoris.
For many others the climate changes may have been the main reason for their extinction.
Contents
Gallery
Extinct
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Some Paleozoic sea scorpions (Eurypterus shown) were larger than a human.
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Dunkleosteus was a 10 m (33 ft) long toothless armored predatory Devonian placoderm fish.
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Sail-backed pelycosaur Dimetrodon and temnospondyl Eryops from North America's Permian.
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Pliosaur Pliosaurus (right) harassing the filter feeder fish Leedsichthys during the Jurassic.
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Macronarian sauropods; from left, Camarasaurus, Brachiosaurus, Giraffatitan, Euhelopus.
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Tyrannosaurus was a 12.3 m (40 ft) long theropod dinosaur, an apex predator of west North America.
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Indricotheres, the land mammals closest to sauropods in size and lifestyle, were Asian rhinos.
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The Late Miocene teratorn Argentavis of South America had a 7 m (23 ft) wingspan.
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C. megalodon (two possible sizes) with a whale shark, great white shark and human for scale.
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Deinotherium had downward-curving tusks and ranged widely over Afro-Eurasia.
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Titanis walleri, the only terror bird known to have invaded North America, was 2.5 m (8.2 ft) tall.
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Hippo-sized Diprotodon of Australia, the largest marsupial of all time, became extinct 40,000 years ago.
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Glyptodon, from South America's Pleistocene, was an auto-sized cingulate, a relative of armadillos.
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Macrauchenia, South America's last and largest litoptern, likely had a short trunk like a saiga.
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American lions exceeded extant lions in size and ranged over much of N. America until 11,000 BP.
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Woolly mammoths vanished after humans invaded their habitat in Eurasia and N. America.
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Haast's eagle, the largest eagle known, attacking moa (which included the tallest bird known).
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Living
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The eastern gorilla is the largest and one of the more endangered primates on the planet.
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The most common tiger subspecies, Bengal tigers are endangered by poaching and habitat destruction.
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Polar bears, among the largest bears (consistent with Bergmann's rule), are vulnerable to global warming.
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The critically endangered black rhinoceros, up to 3.75 metres (12.3 ft) long, is threatened by poaching.
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Wild Bactrian camels are critically endangered. Their ancestors originated in North America.
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Unlike woolly rhinos and mammoths, muskoxen narrowly survived the Quaternary extinctions.
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Hippos, the heaviest and most aquatic even-toed ungulates, are whales' closest living relatives.
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The sperm whale, the largest toothed whale and toothed predator, has the biggest brain.
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The orca, the largest dolphin and pack predator, is highly intelligent and lives in complex societies.
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The cassowary, the heaviest non-African bird, can run at 50 km/h through dense rainforest.
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The saltwater crocodile is the largest living reptile and a dangerous predator of humans.
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The Komodo dragon, an insular giant and the largest lizard, has serrated teeth and a venomous bite.
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The green anaconda, an aquatic constrictor, is the heaviest snake, weighing up to 97.5 kg (215 lb) or more.
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The deep-diving ocean sunfish is the largest bony fish, but its skeleton is mostly cartilaginous.
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The Nile perch, one of the largest freshwater fish, is also a damaging invasive species.
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The great white, the largest macropredatory fish, is more endangered than the tiger.
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Examination of a 9 m giant squid, an abyssal giant and the second largest cephalopod.
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Images for kids
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The African bush elephant, Earth's largest extant land animal
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Baleen whale comparative sizes
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A size comparison between a human and 4 moa species: 1. Dinornis novaezealandiae 2. Emeus crassus 3. Anomalopteryx didiformis 4. Dinornis robustus -
Cyclical pattern of global climate change over the last 450,000 years (based on Antarctic temperatures and global ice volume), showing that there were no unique climatic events that would account for any of the megafaunal extinction pulses
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Leedsichthys, a mid-Jurassic filter feeder fish, may have reached sizes of 7–16.5 m (23–54 ft).
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The Spinosaurus (left) was the largest terrestrial predator to ever live, at 12.6 to 18 meters (41 to 59 ft).
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Reconstructed jaws of C. megalodon (Baltimore).
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Titanis walleri, the only terror bird known to have invaded North America, was 2.5 m (8.2 ft) tall.
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Macrauchenia, South America's last and largest litoptern, may have had a short saiga-like trunk or moose-like nostrils.
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See also
In Spanish: Megafauna para niños
