Extinct Prehistoric Animal Facts
By definition prehistoric animals include all species of animals that have lived prior to when humans started to record history through writing. This list includes hundreds of millions of animals that have become extinct. Our focus in this section of Extinct Animal Facts (Extinct Prehistoric Animal Facts) will be narrower in that we will only generally cover mammals that roamed the earth after the dinosaurs excluding reptiles and insects (there will be a few exceptions). What we know about these animals comes from the research of paleontologists. These scientist use many means, including the piecing together of bones and bone fragments, examination of frozen animal carcasses, and even examining ancient cave paintings to discover what these ancient animals looked like and how they behaved.
Below we have listed interesting facts about many of these prehistoric animals including where they lived, how they survived and what their diet was.
Extinct Prehistoric Mammal Facts
- Extinct prehistoric mammals have this thing in common with modern day mammals:
- All are warm-blooded
- Produce internal body heat by converting the food they consume into energy
- All have backbones
- Mammals always have fur or hair
- Females feed their young with milk
- The earliest mammals we have evidence of are morganucodontids. These were tiny creatures that lived 210 million years ago during the late Triassic period; at the same time as dinosaurs.
- Approximately 65 million years ago when the dinosaurs were basically wiped out by what most scientists believe to be an asteroid that hit the earth mammals started to flourish.
- The Pleistocene Period (2.6 million to 11,700 years ago) saw the extinction of numerous large mammal species. These Pleistocene extinctions may have been the results of early human hunting, diseases, or a combination of the two.
- Many interesting animals, that are no longer extant, lived during the last Ice Age. Perhaps the best known were the amazing saber-toothed cats and the giant mammoths but there were also other amazing animals such as mastodons, longhorned bison, giant ground sloths, and the large birds of prey Teratorns.
List of a few Extinct Prehistoric Animals
- Woolly Mammoths - One of the most famous of all prehistoric animals. These creatures were about the same size as modern day African elephants. They had long thick hair and a thick layer of fat which made them well adapted for the extremely cold weather of the last ice age. They became extinct approximately 9,000 years ago most likely do to both climate change and hunting by early humans.
- Saber Toothed cats - These extinct cats were extremely lethal animals. They are known for their 2 huge canine teeth with which they would stab their prey. The largest and most powerful of these cats was Smilodon who roamed North America and reached up to five feet in length. The Saber Toothed cats became extinct about 11,000 years ago.
- Megaceros (Irish Elk) - Although now extinct it was the biggest deer that ever roamed the planet. It was an amazing 10 feet (3 meters) tall. Large herds roamed the plains of what is now Europe and Asia. Its extinction occurred approximately 11,000 years ago.
- Dinohyus (terrible pig) - This hoofed mammal that resembled a pig lived in North America during the early Miocene Period approximately 25 to 18 million years ago. This herbivore was 12 feet (3.6 meters) long and weighed between 1,300 and 2,200 pounds (600 - 1,000 kilograms).
- Coelodonta (Woolly Rhino) - This 11 foot (3.5 meters) long plant eater was depicted in several prehistoric cave drawings. Its remains have been discovered in Europe and Asia.
