From giant sloths with enormous claws to the biggest cat in history, here are 9 prehistoric
creatures that lived alongside humans.
9.
Dire Wolf
The dire wolf is known more formally as Canis dirus, which means “fearsome dog.”
One of both North and South America’s most famous prehistoric carnivores, it inhabited
these continents starting around 125,000 years ago.
Remains of the dire wolf have been found in a variety of habitats, including grasslands,
savannas, and mountainous, forested areas.
At five feet long (1.5 m) and up to 200 pounds (90 kg), the dire wolf was like a larger and
sturdier version of the modern-day gray wolf, which is currently the biggest living wolf
species.
Its bite force was 29 percent stronger than that of the gray wolf - stronger than any
known Canis species, actually - and its diet consisted mostly of horses.
The dire wolf, which hunted in packs, also feasted on mastodons, ground sloths, bison,
and camels, which it devoured using teeth much like that of the gray wolf, but better
capable of shredding its meal.
Like so many other Pleistocene era carnivores, the dire wolf went extinct around 10,000 years
ago.
Climate change, competition with other species, and its reliance on a dwindling population
of megaherbivores as a food source have been cited as possible reasons for its extinction.
8.
Megalania
Around 50,000 years ago, humans first migrated to Australia, and for a brief period, these
aboriginal settlers shared the continent with the megalania, a now-extinct monitor lizard
and the largest known terrestrial lizard to have ever existed.
The megalania came from the same family as the komodo dragon but was up to four times
bigger, likely measuring at least 18 feet long (5.5 m) and weighing around 1,300 pounds
(590 kg), according to the most recent estimates.
Like the komodo dragon, the megalania possessed poisonous oral glands.
If its prey didn’t succumb to blood loss simply from being bitten by its serrated,
blade-like teeth, the victim slowly bled to death from the anticoagulant effects of the
toxins secreted by those glands.
The megalania probably ate other lizards, marsupials and other small mammals.
As an early human this beast would have been terrifying with its magical saliva and may
have inspired several legends.
Some believe that the creature still exists, as strange attacks are often reported in rural
Australia.
7.
The Giant Ground Sloth
You can’t help but love sloths.
I mean, they are cute, cuddly, and move very slowly.
But back in the time of early humans sloths looked extremely different.
Giant Ground Sloths were huge herbivores that lived in the Americas during the ice age alongside
rivers and lakes.
The largest ground sloth, Megalonyx jeffersonii, was the size of an ox when fully grown, and
could grow up to ten feet long and get up to 2,200 pounds in weight.
They didn’t live in trees but in giant burrows that they would carve out with their claws.
Despite officially having gone extinct thousands of years ago, there are still sightings of
a creature known as the Mapinguari across South America.
Legend says that this creature has giant claws, backward facing feet, and an extra mouth on
its belly- but some think it could actually be a remaining species of ground sloth that
still lives in the thick forest.
6.
Columbian Mammoth
Meet the Columbian mammoth, a cousin of the better-known woolly mammoth.
Around one million years ago, Columbian mammoths appeared in North America.
They evolved from an earlier, Pleistocene-era species of mammoth, although exactly what
this ancestor was remains unclear.
Fossils have even been found in Canada, Nicaragua, and Honduras.
The Columbian mammoth was bigger than its relative, the woolly mammoth, standing up
to 14 feet tall (4.2 m) and measuring between 13 and 15 feet long (4 m - 4.6 m).
This massive beast typically weighed somewhere between 18,000 and 22,000 pounds (8,164 kg
- 9,979 kg).
It’s tusks alone were up to 16 feet long (4.9 m), perfect for fighting off predators.
Unlike the woolly mammoth, which came from a frigid region of Eurasia and was named for
its thick fur, the Columbian mammoth probably didn’t have much hair, since it inhabited
a region with a warmer climate.
As terrifyingly huge as the Columbian mammoth was, it was an herbivore that ate grasses,
brush, trees and other plants.
So early humans were more a threat to it, than it was to them.
To keep up with its body’s demand for energy, the Columbian mammoth had to consume hundreds
of pounds of food daily, or around 150,000 calories!
There are some similarities between the Columbian mammoth and modern elephants, like living
in herds and having ridged teeth designed for chewing plants and that grow in sets as
the animal ages.
Scientists believe that the Columbian mammoth lived to be between 70 and 80 years old.
It roamed the planet for hundreds of thousands of years until it went extinct somewhere between
13,000 and 10,000 years ago, most likely due to climate change and being over-hunted by
early humans.
5.
Gigantopithecus
The Gigantopithecus was the largest primate to ever exist, standing up to ten feet tall
(3 m) and weighing as much as 1,100 pounds (499 kg).
For somewhere between six and nine million years, it lived in the tropical forests of
what is now southern China.
It looked much like a modern-day Sasquatch but went extinct about 100,000 years ago,
at the beginning of the last ice ages.
A study released in 2016 suggested that climate change, along with the creature’s size,
were to blame for the demise of the Gigantopithecus.
The giant ape, which feasted primarily on fruits, was unable to sustain itself on grass,
roots, and leaves that became the dominant food sources of the changing environment.
Put simply, Gigantopithecus was too big to survive on these foods.
If the species had been smaller, it’s quite possible it might have survived.
4.
Short-Faced Bear
After bears first came into existence some 40 million years ago, several subspecies evolved,
including the short-faced bear, which inhabited North America and was most abundant in modern-day
northwestern United States, especially California.
The short-faced bear first appeared around 800,000 years ago, during the middle Pleistocene
era.
There were two species of the short-faced bear, and one of them, was one of the largest
known terrestrial mammalian carnivores to have ever existed.
Arctodus simus is estimated to have weighed up to 2,110 pounds (957 kg) and to stand between
11 and 12 feet (3.4 m - 3.7 m) tall while on its hind legs, with a vertical arm reach
of around 14 feet (4.3 m).
On all fours, it stood tall enough to look an adult man in the eyes.
In addition to being powerful, the short-faced bear was fast.
It was capable of running between 30 and 40 miles per hour (48 km- 64 km).
An analysis of bones found in Alaska uncovered high levels of nitrogen-15, which indicates
that the short-faced bear was highly carnivorous.
The species went extinct 11,000 years ago as it competed with animals entering North
America, its supply of prey began to wane, and humans greatly improved their hunting
techniques.
3.
Quinkana
The quinkana was a huge crocodile that became one of Australia’s top terrestrial predators
during the Pleistocene period.
It comes from an extinct genus that roamed the continent from 24 million years ago until
around 40,000 years ago.
On average, the quinkana grew up to 23 feet long - that’s three feet longer than 20-foot
Lolong, the longest crocodile ever recorded.
Unlike many other crocodiles, the quinkana was a land-dweller.
Because of this, it grew long, powerful legs, which enabled it to tire out its prey by chasing
it over long distances.
Also unlike other crocodiles, who characteristically use their teeth to drag their victims in the
water to drown them, the quinkana had much sharper teeth and used them for cutting.
The quinkana went extinct around 40,000 years ago - around 10,000 years after Australia’s
first human settlers arrived - and the entire genus of crocodiles that the quinkana came
from are all now extinct.
2.
American Lion
The American lion, or Panthera atrox, wasn’t actually a lion at all.
It was, however, one of the great North American mammalian predators of the Pleistocene Epoch.
This enormous cat roamed the U.S. and Canada from 1.8 million to roughly 11,000 years ago,
when the species died out at the end of the last ice age.
During its time on Earth, the American lion was only exceeded in size by the giant short-faced
bear, that I just told you about.
In fact, it was the biggest known cat in history and was 25% bigger than the modern African
lion, weighing in at 772 pounds (350 kg) on average.
This strong predator was capable of taking down other huge animals, such as bison, and
it was probably wise for our human ancestors to avoid them, even during a group hunt.
While the American lion had a lot of similarities to modern-day lions and tigers, it most closely
resembled jaguars.
The best fossils of the American lion have been found in the La Brea tar pits of the
Miracle Mile district of Los Angeles, along with fossils of other extinct giant species,
including saber-toothed cats, mammoths, ground sloths, and camels, and the dire wolf - just
to name a few.
1.
Cave Hyena
Surely you’ve heard of the laughing hyena.
This was its prehistoric cousin.
The cave hyena, also known as the spotted coyote, occupied territory from the Iberian
Peninsula to eastern Siberia and was roughly double the size of its relative, the laughing
hyena, standing up to three feet tall, measuring up to five feet long, and with a maximum weight
of 285 pounds.
When working together, this incredibly strong predator was capable of overpowering large
animals, including a nine-ton mastodon, the steppe bison, and even the woolly rhinoceros.
The remains of hundreds of large prehistoric mammals that have been discovered along rivers
and in caves, sinkholes, and mud pits likely represent the victims of the cave hyena.
A pack of these hungry hyenas, which lived and hunted in packs of up to 30, would have
undoubtedly been lethal to a lone human or a small group of humans.
Around 20,000 years ago, the cave hyena population began to dwindle.
It went extinct sometime between 11,000 and 13,000 years ago.
Competition with humans over cave space during the last ice age is likely a huge factor in
the extinction of the species.
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