The Irish Elk or Irish Giant Deer, was the largest deer that ever lived. Despite its
name, the Irish elk was found all across Europe and Asia, and in North Africa, and is technically
a deer rather than an elk. It stood up to 7 feet at the shoulder, with antlers spanning
up to 12 feet. The Irish elk's skeleton suggests that it was an endurance runner that could
wear out predators without tiring itself. Unfortunately, the Irish elk went extinct
due to their antlers becoming so large that the animals could no longer hold up their
heads, or got entangled in the trees.
When you think of an extinct animal, the dodo bird is certainly one that always pops up
in your mind. Originating from the island of Mauritius, the dodo bird was a flightless
bird that stood approximately one meter tall and weighed about 40lbs. It lived and nested
on the ground and ate fruits that had fallen from trees. The closest relatives to the dodo
bird are pigeons and doves, even though dodo birds were much larger in size. However, due
to aggressive human population, dodo birds became extinct in late 17th century. The complete
isolation of this island let the dodo birds grow and evolve without natural predators,
unfortunately to a fault that led to their extinction.
The Thylacine was the largest known carnivorous marsupial of modern times. It is commonly
known by the name, the “Tasmanian Tiger” due to its striped back. Thylacines were native
to Australia and New Guinea. It became extinct on the Australian mainland thousands of years
before European settlement of the continent, but survived on the island of Tasmania along
with a number of other endemic species such as the Tasmanian Devil. Intensive human hunting
encouraged by bounties is generally blamed for its extinction, but other contributory
factors may have been disease and the introduction of dogs into its habitat. Despite being officially
classified as extinct, there are still reported sightings of Thylacines. In fact, The Bulletin
magazine offered a £700,000 or $1 million reward for the capture of a live thylacine.
One of Africa's most famous extinct animals, the quagga was a subspecies of the plains
zebra, which was once found in great numbers in South Africa's Cape Province and the southern
part of the Orange Free State. The Quagga zebra was distinguished from other zebras
by having the usual vivid stripes on the front part of the body only. In the mid-section,
the stripes faded and the dark, inter-stripe spaces became wider and the hindquarters were
a plain brown. Quaggas were ruthlessly hunted for meat and leather by South African farmers
and settlers. The confusion between different zebra species led the Quagga to become extinct
before it was realised that it appeared to be a separate species.
The Tyrannosaurus Rex was one of the largest land carnivores of all time, measuring roughly
up to 40 feet long, and 15 – 20 feet tall, with an estimated mass that goes up to 7 tons.
T-Rex's had serrated, conical teeth which were most likely used to pierce and grip flesh,
enabling it to rip the flesh away with its brawny neck muscles. As well as its sharp
teeth, T-Rexs’ had strong thighs and a powerful tail, which counterbalanced its large head
and allowed it to move quickly. But most impressively, scientists believe this powerful predator
could eat up to 500 pounds (230 kilograms) of meat in one bite. It is believed that the
T-Rex went extinct during the K-T mass extinction, about 65 million years ago. This extinction
was probably caused by a catastrophic asteroid that collided with Earth.