10 scariest animals coexist with man

Homo sapiens is a newcomer on the planet: our Earth has 4.6 billion years, and the first humans appeared only 200 thousand years ago. For today you were able to read this text, our ancestors had to survive among the animals, inspires real terror. In our selection — 10 awesome neighbors of primitive man.

The mammoth Columbus is one of the largest mammoths that ever lived on earth, relative to the more typical woolly mammoth. The remains of the Colombian mammoth were found on the way from Canada to Mexico. The famous woolly mammoths left their traces in Northern Asia, Russia, and Canada. The main difference is that the Colombian mammoths were virtually not covered with hair, which brings them to modern elephants, and their tusks were much larger than the wooly mammoths.

The growth of the Colombian mammoth was approximately 3-4 m, and weight up to 5-10 tons. Columbian mammoths — the owners of the largest tusks among the elephant family. 3.5 mm in length, rounded, incredibly durable, they were used to fight against all predators, including humans.

Giant sloths. Today, the sloth is one of the cutest creatures photos which are gaining millions of “likes” in social networks. Their ancient ancestors did not seem so charming.

There are several species of giant sloths. Those that lived in North America was the size of a rhinoceros, and the old man, perhaps, they often had dinner. However, the largest of the giant sloths, megaterio, lived in South Africa about 10 thousand years ago and was at least the size of an elephant. About 6 m from head to tail, weighing 4 tons, with sharp teeth and long nails, the sloth seemed quite formidable animals. Moreover, there is an assumption that they were predators.

The last species of giant sloths lived in the Caribbean Islands about 4.2 thousand years ago.

Gigantopithecus — the largest Primate that ever trampled the earth. This relative of the orangutan has earned its name: three-metre animal weighing 500 kg and it was huge even for the prehistoric world. Interestingly, gigantopithecus very similar to the image of the Yeti. However, gigantopithecus extinct 100 million years ago. Besides, if then, the giant apes and didn’t try to hide from people, it is unlikely that one of them is now hiding in the highlands, scaring tourists under the guise of Bigfoot.

Gigantopithecus lived on the Earth for approximately 6-9 million years, feeding on fruit in South-East Asia. But with climate change, tropical forest turned into a dry savanna, and gigantopithecus became extinct from lack of food.

Cave hyena reached 1 m in height at the shoulders and weighing 80 to 100 kg. According to calculations based on studies of fossils, cave hyena was able to knock down 5-year-old mastodon, which weighed a ton.

Cave hyenas lived in flocks, sometimes consisting of 30 individuals. This made them stronger hunters: together, they could attack on 9-year-old mastodon, weighing 9 tons. Needless to say that people hardly wanted to meet with a pack of hungry hyenas.

The population of cave hyenas started to decrease 20 thousand years ago and finally disappeared 11-13 thousand years ago. As one of the reasons that contributed to the extinction of cave hyenas, scientists suggest fighting for cave space during the last ice age.

Smilodon is an extinct genus of saber-toothed cats, contrary to stereotypes, have little to do with saber-toothed tigers.

The first saber-toothed cats appeared 42 million years ago. There were many types, most of which became extinct before the appearance of man. However, at least two species of saber-toothed cats could meet primitive man in America. In size they were from the modern African lion and weighed as the Amur tiger.

Smilodon was an incredibly strong animal, he could easily attack the mammoth. Smilodon used special tactics: first, waited for the prey, quietly approaching and is rapidly attacked.

Despite its “salesbot”, the smilodon cat is not among the most powerful bite. So, the bite of a modern lion, maybe three times stronger. But the jaws of smilodon was open at 120 degrees, which is half the capabilities of current lion.

Dire wolf — no, “horrible” is not an epithet, and the name of the species of wolves that lived in North America. There was an awful wolves are about a quarter million years ago. They are similar to modern gray wolves, but much hardier. Their length was up to 1.5 m, and weight was about 90 kg.

The bite force of the wolf were 29% stronger than the bite force of a grey wolf. Their main diet was horse. Like many other carnivores, dire wolf went extinct 10 thousand years ago during the last ice age.

American lion, despite the name “Leo”, was closer to the modern Panther than a lion. American lions inhabited the territory of North America about 330 thousand years ago.

American lion — the largest known wild cats in history. The average individual weighing about 350 kg, was incredibly strong and easily attacked bison. So even a group of primitive people would not be thrilled with a meeting with one of us lions. Like previous companions, American lions became extinct during the last ice age.

Megalania is the largest of the known lizards lived in Australia and began to disappear about 50 thousand years ago, i.e. at the same time, as man began to colonize the continent.

The size of megalania — scientific debates. According to one, its length up to 7 m, but it is believed that the average length was about 3.5 m. But it is important not only size: megalania was a poisonous lizard. If the victim did not die from loss of blood, then certainly died of poisoning — in any case, get away alive from the mouth of megalania hardly anyone could.

Short faced bear is one of those types of bears, to face the primitive man. The ancient bear was about 1.5 meters at the shoulders, but he had to stand on his hind legs as he stretched up to 4 m. If this sounds scary enough, then add this detail: thanks to the long limbs, the bear speeds up to 64 km/h. this means that Hussein Bolt, whose record of 45 km/h, easily went to him for dinner.

Giant short faced bears were among the largest carnivores in North America. They appeared about 800 thousand years ago, and became extinct 11.6 thousand years ago.

Quincey, land crocodiles, appeared for a long time — 1.6 million back in Australia. Giant ancestors of crocodiles reached 7 m in length. Unlike crocodiles, Quincey lived and hunted on land. In this they were helped by the long, powerful legs to chase prey over long distances, and sharp teeth. The fact that crocodiles use the teeth in order to grab the victim, drag her to the water and drown. Teeth land Quincey was designed to kill living and literally cut a victim. Quincey went extinct about 50 thousand years ago, lived about 10 thousand years side by side with the primitive man.

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