Prehistoric
Beasts
Andrewsarchus
Dietary type: carnivore. It ate other mammals such as chalicotherium and mammoth.
Closest living relative: mammals such as pigs and deer, even though it looked dog like
Size: it had a large, 83cm long skull and was 1.8m tall and 5m long. It was the largest meat-eating land mammal to ever exist.
Other features: it had very strong teeth and a very strong jaw so it could eat bone and turtle shell.
When: Late Eocene (the formation is dated from 37 to 34 million years ago)
Where: Asia
Chalicotherium
Dietary type: herbivore
Closest living relative: horse
Size: it was around 3 metres tall with very long limbs and claws which helped it to strip leaves from branches.
Other features: it had a horse-like snout, clawed feet and longer front legs than back legs. It walked on all fours like a gorilla and ate like a giant panda.
Dietary type: herbivore
When: Miocene Epoch (23.7 to 5.3 million years ago)
Where: Europe, Africa and Asia
Dinohyus
Dietary type: omnivore
Closest living relative: pig
Size and weight: it was nearly 4m long. It weighed around a ton!
Other features: it had a long, narrow head covered in warts.
When: Miocene Epoch (23.7 to 5.3 million years ago)
Where: North America
Glyptodon
Dietary type: herbivore, it fed on grasses and other plants found near water.
Closest living relative: armadillo
Size and weight: they were the same size and weight as the average car!
Other features: they were covered in thick, rigid, armoured shell.
When: Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs (5.3 million to 11,700 years ago)
Where: North and South America
Indricotherium
Dietary type: herbivore
Closest living relative: rhinoceros
Size: it was the largest land mammal that ever lived. It was around 5m tall, 8m long and weighed around 20 tonnes!
Other features: it was like a modern rhino but had a long, domed forehead, a long neck and had no horns.
When: Oligocene and Early Miocene epochs (30 million to 16.6 million years ago)
Where: Asia
Mammoth
Dietary type: herbivore
Closest living relative: modern elephant
Size: it was one of the largest land mammals. Adults were around the same size as elephants today. They were around 3m high and weighed around 4 tons.
Other features: they had smaller ears than elephants today, had thick wool to keep warm and they had very long tusks about 5m long. Their tusks were used for fighting and digging in deep snow.
When: Pleistocene (2.6 million years ago and ended 11,700 years ago) and the Holocene Epoch (11,700 years ago and continues through to present day)
Where: Everywhere except Australia and South America
Mastodon
Dietary type: herbivore. Fed on conifer twigs, swamp plants, spruce, pine, mosses etc.
Closest living relative: modern elephant
Size: adults were around the same size as elephants today. They were around 3m high and weighed around 4 tons.
Other features: one of the largest land mammals living during the ice age. They had short tusks for breaking branches to feed on. They also had short wool.
When: First appeared in the early Miocene and continued in various forms through the Pleistocene Epoch (from 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago)
Where: Worldwide
Megatherium
Dietary type: herbivore. Fed on �leaves and grasses.
Closest living relative: sloth, armadillo and anteater
Size: one of the largest land mammals. It weighed up to 4 tonnes and was the same size as a modern elephant.
Other features: it had a muscular tail which it used to lift itself up to reach food, it has long curved claws for digging and a long tongue which it used to pull leaves into it’s mouth. Due to its long claws the megatherium had to walk on the sides of it’s feet.
When: Cenozoic Era (beginning 65.5 million years ago)
Where: North and South America
Sabre-toothed Cat
Dietary type: carnivore. Hunted and scavenged deer, buffalo, camels and large mammals such as chalicotherium and mammoth.
Closest living relative: modern cats
Size: they were around 4m long and 2.6 metres tall.
Other features: they had long, curved, canine teeth and were built more like bears than cats. They also had leopard-like patterned fur.
When: Pleistocene Epoch (55.8 million to 11,700 years ago)
Where: Asia, Africa, North and South America
Woolly Rhinoceros
Dietary type: herbivore. Ate grasses and sedges.
Closest living relative: modern rhinoceros
Size: Around 2m tall and 4m long. Larger than a modern rhinoceros.
Other features: they had stocky limbs and long wool. They also had two horns which protruded from the skull and short ears.
When: Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs (5.3 million to 11,700 years ago)
Where: Europe, North Africa, and Asia
THE END