Prehistoric fauna

[Serjeant Grumbles]

Feliformia (cont.):

The true saber-toothed cats fall under the felid subfamily Machairodontinae, which included, in addition to the well-known Smilodon, creatures such as these:

Homotherium, the scimitar-toothed cats, lived from the Pliocene to Pleistocene (5 mya to 10,000 years ago). They reached a shoulder-height of 1.1 m (3.6 ft.) and weighed from 150-250 kg (330-550 lbs.). The species represented here is H. serum, the American scimitar.

Dinofelis, living from the early Pliocene to early Pleistocene (5 mya - 1.2 mya), ranged in size between a leopard and a lion, with most being about the size of a jaguar (up to 120 kg).

However, there were of course other cats besides the saber-toothed variety, such as:

Panthera leo atrox, the American lion, lived in colder climates than modern lions. It was one of the largest cats to exist, at about 4 feet high at the shoulder and weighing up to 351 kg (774 lbs.).

 

[Serjeant Grumbles]

Bumped. I have replaced the dead image links on page one, and I will fix the links on subsequent pages soon enough. I'm thinking about adding more to this.

 

[-CC-]

Dat blast from the past.

 

[AllShallFall]

Awesome thread, looking forward to seeing more posted here. As a geologist this will be cool to see some paleontological stuff.

 

[Serjeant Grumbles]

Indricotherium, aka Baluchitherium aka Paraceratherium (as it's debated whether they are synonyms or seperate genera), a close rhinoceros relative, was the largest land mammal to ever live, at about 5.5 meters (18 feet) tall at the shoulder, 9 meters (30 feet) long, weighing around 20 tonnes. With their fairly long necks, they filled a similar niche as giraffes, living in from the late Eocene to early Miocene (37-23 mya).

It appears that the latest science posits that Palaeoloxodon namadicus, the Asian straight-tusked elephant, was even bigger in terms of weight. One specimen is estimated to be 5.2 metres (17.1 ft) tall at the shoulder and 22 tonnes (24.3 short tons) in weight. Here they are side by side for comparison:

And unlike the indricotheres, P. namadicus was around during the late Pleistocene up until 24,000 years ago, so prehistoric humans may have encountered it.

Lastly, here it is compared to its largest living relative, the African elephant:

It also warrants mentioning that the Asian elephant is more closely related to the mammoths than to its living cousins in Africa, which are more distant from both of those aforementioned groups as well as Palaeoloxodon.

 

[Blurry_Dreams]

this thread is actually interesting

 

[Onder]

this thread is actually interesting

Imagine sucking toes of a huge elephant!

 

[Blurry_Dreams]

hahaha
i think i'll stick to human toes thank-you-very-much