Pleistocene megafauna

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Pleistocene megafauna

Pleistocene megafauna is the set of species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring....
of large animals — mammal

Mammal

Mammals are a class of vertebrate animals whose name is derived from their distinctive feature, mammary glands, with which they feed their young....
s, bird

Bird

Birds are wing, Bipedalismal, endothermic , vertebrate animals that lay egg . There are around 10,000 living species, making them the most numerous tetrapod vertebrates....
s and reptile

Reptile

Reptiles, or members of the class Reptilia, are air-breathing, cold-blooded vertebrates that have skin covered in scale as opposed to hair or feathers....
s — that lived on Earth during the Pleistocene

Pleistocene

The Pleistocene is the epoch from 1.8 million to 10,000 years Before Present covering the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
epoch and went extinct in a Quaternary extinction event

Quaternary extinction event

The Quaternary epoch saw the extinctions of numerous predominantly larger species, many of which occurred during the transition to the Holocene epoch in what is termed the Holocene extinction event....
. These species appear to have died off as human

Human

A human being, also human or man, is a member of a species of bipedalism primates in the family Hominidae . Mitochondrial DNA evidence indicates that modern humans originated in east Africa about 200,000 years ago....
s expanded out of Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km? including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area....
and southern Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area and, with over 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population....
, the only continents that still retain a diversity of megafauna

Megafauna

The term megafauna has two distinct meanings in the biological sciences. The less commonly found meaning is of any animal which can be seen with the unaided eye, in contrast to microfauna....
comparable to what was lost. The Americas, northern Eurasia, Australia and many larger Islands lost the vast majority of their larger and all of their largest mammals.

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Encyclopedia

Pleistocene megafauna is the set of species

Species

Mammal

Mammals are a class of vertebrate animals whose name is derived from their distinctive feature, mammary glands, with which they feed their young....
s, bird

Bird

Birds are wing, Bipedalismal, endothermic , vertebrate animals that lay egg . There are around 10,000 living species, making them the most numerous tetrapod vertebrates....
s and reptile

Reptile

Pleistocene

Quaternary extinction event

Human

Africa

Asia

Megafauna

Theory

For a more detailed account of theories as expressed in formal language as they are studied in mathematical logic see Theory A theory, in the general sense of the word, is an analytic structure designed to explain a set of observations....
have been given for these extinctions: hunting

Hunting

Hunting is the practice of pursuing living animals for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to law....
by the spreading humans, climatic change

Climate change

Climate change is any long-term significant change in the expected patterns of average weather of a specific region over an appropriately significant period of time....
, and spreading disease

Disease

A disease or medical condition is an abnormal condition of an organism that impairs bodily functions, associated with specific symptoms and Medical signs....
. A combination of those explanations is also possible.

North America

Pleistocene

The Pleistocene is the epoch from 1.8 million to 10,000 years Before Present covering the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
fauna in the Americas included giant sloths, short faced bears, California tapir

Tapir

Tapirs are large Herbivory mammals, roughly pig-like in shape, with short, prehensile snouts. They inhabit jungle and forest regions of South America, Central America, and Southeast Asia....
s, peccaries

Platygonus

Platygonus is an extinct genus of peccary from North America.Platygonus was larger than modern peccaries, at around in body length, and had long legs, allowing it to run well....
, the American lion

American lion

The American lion also known as the North American lion, American cave lion, is an extinct Felidae known from fossils. It was one of the largest subspecies of lion ever to have existed, comparable in size to the Early Middle Pleistocene primitive cave lion, Panthera leo fossilis, and about twenty-five percent larger than...
, giant condors, Miracinonyx ("American cheetahs", not true cheetahs), saber-toothed cat

Saber-toothed cat

The terms sabre-toothed cat, sabretooth, and sabre-toothed tiger describe numerous species, mainly in the families Felidae , Barbourofelidae, and Nimravidae, but also including two marsupial families, that lived during various parts of the Cenozoic Era and evolved their sabre-toothed characteristics entirely independently....
s (like Smilodon
Smilodon

Smilodon , sometimes called sabre-toothed cat, is an extinction genus of large Machairodontinae saber-toothed cats that lived between approximately 2.5 million to 10,000 years ago in North America and South America....
and the scimitar cat, Homotherium
Homotherium

Homotherium is a genus of machairodontinae saber-toothed cats, often termed scimitar cats, that lived approximately 5 million to 10,000 years ago in North America, South America, Eurasia and Africa....
), dire wolves

Dire Wolf

The Dire Wolf is an extinction Carnivora mammal of the genus Canis, and was most common in North America and South America during the Pleistocene....
, saiga, camelids such as two species of now extinct llamas and Camelops
Camelops

Camelops is an extinct genus of camels that once roamed western North America, where it disappeared at the end of the pleistocene about 10,000 years ago....
, at least two species of bison

Bison

Bison is a taxonomic group containing six species of large even-toed ungulates within the subfamily Bovinae. Only two of these species still exist: the American bison and the European bison, or wisent , each with two subspecies....
, stag-moose

Stag-moose

The Stag-moose or Stag moose was a large moose-like deer of North America of the Pleistocene epoch. It was slightly larger than the moose, with an elk-like head, long legs, and complex palmate antlers....
, the shrub-ox

Shrub-ox

The shrub-ox is an extinct genus and species of Bovidae native to North America. It is a close relative of the musk-ox.Euceratherium was one of the first bovidaes to enter North America....
and Harlan's muskox, horses

Evolution of the horse

The evolution of the horse involves the gradual development of the modern horse from the fox-sized, forest-dwelling Hyracotherium. Paleozoology have been able to piece together a more complete picture of the modern horse's evolutionary lineage than that of any other animal....
, mammoth

Mammoth

A mammoth is any species of the extinct genus Mammuthus. These proboscideans are members of the Elephantidae and close relatives of modern elephants....
s and mastodon

Mastodon

Mastodons or Mastodonts are members of the extinction genus Mammut of the order Proboscidea and form the family Mammutidae; they resembled, but were distinct from, the woolly mammoth, which belongs to the family Elephantidae....
s, and giant beaver

Giant Beaver

The Giant Beaver was a huge species of rodent, with a length up to 2.5 m and an estimated weight of 60-100 kg ; past estimates went up to 220 kg ....
s. In contrast today the largest North America

North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
n land mammal is the American bison

American Bison

The American Bison is a bovinae mammal, also commonly known as the American buffalo. "Buffalo" is somewhat of a misnomer for this animal, as it is only distantly related to either of the two "true buffaloes", the Wild Asian Water Buffalo and the African buffalo....
.

South America

South American wildlife in the Pleistocene varied greatly, from the birds such as Phorusrhacos
Phorusrhacos

Phorusrhacos was a genus of giant flightless predatory birds that lived in Patagonia, containing the single species Phorusrhacos longissimus....
, to the giant ground sloth

Ground sloth

Ground sloths are a diverse group of extinct sloths, mammals in the edentate superorder Xenarthra. They may have died out as recently as 1550 AD in Hispaniola and Cuba, but had long since been extinct on the mainland of North America and South America....
, Megatherium
Megatherium

Megatherium was a genus of elephant-sized ground sloths that lived from two million to 8,000 years ago. A related genus was Nothrotheriops, which were primarily bear-sized ground sloths....
. The continent also had quite a few grazers and mixed feeders such as the camel-like litoptern

Litopterna

The Litopterna is an order of fossil hoofed mammals from the Tertiary period that displays toe reduction. Three-toed, and even a one-toed horselike form were developed....
Macrauchenia

Macrauchenia

'Macrauchenia' was a long-necked and long-limbed, three-toed South American ungulate mammal, typifying the order Litopterna. The oldest fossils date back to around seven million years ago, and M....
, Cuvieronius
Cuvieronius

Cuvieronius is an extinct New World genus of gomphothere. It is named after the French naturalist Georges Cuvier, stood 2.7m tall and looked like a modern elephant except for its spiral-shaped tusks....
, Stegomastodon
Stegomastodon

Stegomastodon is an extinct genus of gomphothere, a family of proboscideans.It stood tall and looked like a robust version of the modern elephant....
, Doedicurus
Doedicurus

Doedicurus clavicaudatus was a prehistoric glyptodont, living during the Pleistocene until the end of the last ice age, some 11,000 years ago....
, Hippidion
Hippidion

Hippidion was a Welsh pony-sized horse that lived in South America during the Pleistocene epoch, between two million and 10,000 years ago....
and Toxodon
Toxodon

Toxodon is an extinct mammal of the late Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs about 2.6 million to 1,800 years ago. It was indigenous to South America, and was probably the most common large hoofed mammal in South America at the time of its existence....
. The main predator of the region was Smilodon
Smilodon

Smilodon , sometimes called sabre-toothed cat, is an extinction genus of large Machairodontinae saber-toothed cats that lived between approximately 2.5 million to 10,000 years ago in North America and South America....
, which crossed the land bridge between North and South America one million years ago.

Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
was characterized by marsupial

Marsupial

Marsupials are an infraclass of mammals, characterized by a distinctive Pouch , in which females carry their young through early infancy....
s, monotreme

Monotreme

Monotremes are mammals that lay eggs instead of giving birth to live young like Marsupialias and Placentalia .They are conventionally treated as comprising a single order Monotremata, though a recent classification proposes to divide them into the orders Platypoda and Tachyglossa ....
s, crocodilians, testudines and monitors and numerous large flightless birds. Pleistocene Australia supported large Short-faced kangaroo

Procoptodon

Procoptodon was a genus of giant short-faced kangaroo living in Australia during the Pleistocene epoch. P. goliah, the largest kangaroo that ever existed, stood approximately 3 metres tall and weighed about ....
(Procoptodon goliah), Diprotodon
Diprotodon

__FORCETOC__Diprotodon was the largest known Marsupialia that ever lived. It, along with many other members of a group of unusual species collectively called the Australian megafauna, existed from 1.6 million years ago until about 40,000 years ago ....
(a giant wombat

Wombat

Wombats are Australian marsupials; they are short-legged, muscular quadrupeds, approximately in length with a very short tail. They are found in forested, mountainous, and heathland areas of south-eastern Australia and Tasmania....
), the Marsupial Lion

Marsupial lion

Thylacoleo is an extinct genus of carnivorous marsupials that lived in Australia from the late Pliocene to the late Pleistocene . Some of these "marsupial lions" were the largest mammalian predators in Australia of that time, with Thylacoleo carnifex approaching the weight of a small lion....
(Thylacoleo carnifex), the flightless birds Genyornis
Genyornis

Genyornis was a monotypic genus of large, flightless bird that lived in Australia until 50?5 thousand years ago. Many species became Extinction in Australia around that time, coinciding with the arrival of humans....
and Dromornis
Dromornithidae

Dromornithidae ? the dromornithids ? were a scientific classification of large, flightless Australian birds of the Pleistocene Epoch. All are now extinction....
, the 5-meter snake

Snake

Snakes are elongate legless carnivore reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears....
Wonambi
Wonambi

Wonambi is a genus currently consisting of two species of very large snakes. These species are not Pythonidaes, like Australia's other large constrictors of the genus Morelia, but a member of a now extinct family Madtsoiidae....
and the giant lizard

Lizard

Lizards are a large and widespread group of squamate reptiles, with nearly 5,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica as well as most oceanic island chains....
, the megalania

Megalania

Megalania is a giant extinct goanna or monitor lizard. It was part of a Australian megafauna assemblage that inhabited southern Australia during the Pleistocene, and appears to have disappeared around 40,000 years ago....
.

Eurasia

As with South America, some elements of Eurasia

Eurasia

Eurasia is a large landmass covering about 53,990,000 km? or about 10.6% of the Earth's surface . Often considered a single continent, Eurasia comprises the traditional continents of Europe and Asia, concepts which date back to classical antiquity and the borders for which are somewhat arbitrary....
n megafauna were similar to those of North America. Among the most recognizable Eurasian species are the woolly mammoth

Woolly mammoth

The woolly mammoth , also called the tundra mammoth, is an extinct species of mammoth. This animal is known from bones and frozen carcasses from northern North America and northern Eurasia with the best preserved carcasses in Siberia....
, aurochs

Aurochs

The aurochs or urus was a very large type of cattle that was prevalent in Europe until its extinction in 1627. The animal's original scientific name, Bos primigenius, was meant as a Latin translation of the German language term Auerochse or Urochs, which was interpreted as literally meaning "primeval ox" or "proto-ox"....
, cave lion

Cave lion

The cave lion also known as the European or Eurasian cave lion, is an extinct subspecies of lion known from fossils and multiple examples of prehistoric art....
, cave bear

Cave Bear

The Cave Bear was a species of bear which lived in Europe during the Pleistocene and became extinct at the beginning of the Last Glacial Maximum about 27,500 years ago....
, Irish elk

Irish Elk

The Irish Elk or Giant Deer, Megaloceros giganteus was a species of Megaloceros and one of the largest deer that ever lived....
, woolly rhinoceros

Woolly Rhinoceros

The woolly rhinoceros is an extinct species of rhinoceros native to the northern steppes of Eurasia that lived during the Pleistocene epoch and survived the last glacial period....
and Elasmotherium
Elasmotherium

Elasmotherium was a genus of giant rhinoceros which stood, on average, high and long, with a single two-meter-long horn in the forehead. The animal may have weighed up to ....
. In contrast today the largest European land mammal is the European bison or Wisent

Wisent

File:Bison bonasus right eye close-up.jpgThe wisent , or European bison , is a bison species and the heaviest surviving Terrestrial animal in Europe....
.

Insular

Many island

Island

An island or isle is any piece of land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls are called islets....
s had unique megafauna that went extinct upon the arrival of humans. These included giant bird forms in New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous Islands of New Zealand, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands....
such as the moa

Moa

The moa were ten species of flightless birds endemic to New Zealand. The two largest species, Dinornis robustus and Dinornis novaezelandiae, reached about in height with neck outstretched, and weighed about ....
s and Harpagornis

Haast's Eagle

Haast's Eagle , was a massive, now extinction eagle that once lived on the South Island of New Zealand. It is the largest eagle known to have existed....
(a giant eagle); Archaeoindris
Archaeoindris

Archaeoindris fontoynonti is an extinct species of Malagasy fauna lemur that was the largest primate to evolve on Madagascar. It weighed about 200kg and measured around 1.5m in height, more than a silverback gorilla....
, a gorilla-sized lemur, two species of hippopotamus

Hippopotamus

The hippopotamus or hippo is a large, mostly herbivore African mammal, one of only two Extant taxon species in the scientific classification Hippopotamidae ....
and the gigantic Aepyornis in Madagascar

Madagascar

Madagascar, or Republic of Madagascar , is an island nation in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa. The main island, also called Madagascar, is the List of islands by area, and is home to 5% of the world's plant and animal species, of which more than 80% are Endemism to Madagascar....
; dwarf Stegodon
Stegodon

Stegodon is a genus of the extinct subfamily Stegodontinae of the Order Proboscidea. Stegodonts lived in large parts of Asia during the Pliocene and Pleistocene epoch ....
on Flores

Flores

Flores is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, an island arc with an estimated area of 14,300 km? extending east from the Java island of Indonesia....
and a number of other islands; dwarf woolly mammoth

Woolly mammoth

Wrangel Island

Wrangel Island is an island in the Arctic Ocean, between the Chukchi Sea and East Siberian Sea. Wrangel Island lies astride the 180th meridian meridian ....
and St. Paul Island; land turtles

Meiolaniidae

Meiolaniidae is an extinct family of large, possibly herbivorous turtles with heavily armored heads and tails. They are best known from the last surviving genus, Meiolania, which lived in the rainforests of Australia from the Oligocene until the Pleistocene, and relic populations that lived on Lord Howe Island and New Caledonia until 200...
and crocodiles in New Caledonia

Biodiversity of New Caledonia

The Biodiversity of New Caledonia, a large Pacific island group, is considered to be one of the most important in the world. The island supports high levels of endemic , with many unique plants, insects, reptiles and birds....
; giant

Tyto pollens

Tyto pollens, also known as Andros Island Barn Owl, Bahaman Barn Owl, Bahaman Great Owl, or "Chickcharnie," was a 1 metre tall, flightless barn owl that lived in the old-growth pine forests of Andros Island....
owls and dwarf ground sloths

Megalocnus

The ground sloths of the genus Megalocnus were among the largest of the Caribbean ground sloths, with individuals estimated to have weighed up to 90 kilos when alive....
in the Caribbean

Caribbean

The Caribbean is a region consisting of the Caribbean Sea, its islands , and the surrounding coasts. The region is located southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and Northern America, east of Central America, and to the north of South America....
; giant geese and moa-nalo

Moa-nalo

Moa-nalo are a group of extinct aberrant, goose-like ducks that formerly lived on the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific. They were the major herbivores on most of these islands for the last 3 million years or so, until they became extinct after human settlement....
(giant ducks) in Hawaii

Hawaii

File:Pahoehoe and Aa flows at Hawaii.jpgThe State of Hawaii is a U.S. state in the United States, located on an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of Australia....
; and dwarf elephant

Dwarf elephant

Fossil remains of dwarf elephants have been found on the Mediterranean islands of Cyprus, Malta , Crete, Sicily, Sardinia, the Cyclades and the Dodecanese Islands....
s and dwarf hippos

Pygmy Hippopotamus

The pygmy hippopotamus is a large mammal native to the forests and swamps of western Africa . The pygmy hippo is reclusive and nocturnal. It is one of only two extant species in the Hippopotamidae family , the other being its much larger cousin the common hippopotamus....
from the Mediterranean islands.