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Pleistocene Herbivores and their Predators
Pleistocene Herbivores and their Predators
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Pleistocene Herbivores and their Predators
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This topic is about the Pleistocene mega-fauna and their possible predators.
What large herbivores might the Pleistocene bears have hunted? Order Xenarthra ( sloths and armadillos )... Family Dasypodidea included Holmesina septentrionalis an armadillo 6 feet long and 3 feet high. One of these big guys weighed roughly 600 pounds. Family Gliptodontidae included Glyptotherium arizonae which measured roughly 10 feet long and you may add to this length a tail 4.5 feet long. This big heavily armored herbivore weighed roughly 1 ton ( 2,000 pounds ). Family Megalonychidae included Megalonyx jeffersonii - Megalonyx meaning "giant claw" and jeffersonii after Thomas Jefferson who greatly admired this great beast. This giant ground sloth measured roughly 10 feet long. Family Megatheriidae was another group of giant ground sloths. Eremotherium rusconii was a huge member of this family which lived in North America. A large male could measure 20 feet long and weigh up to 6,000 pounds. Family Mylodontidae included Paramylodon harlani, a ground sloth which could measure 12 feet long and weighed roughly 3,500 pounds. *Note: information straight from 'Ice Age Mammals of North America' by Ian M. Lange.
Ice Age Mammals of North America by Ian M. Lange.
Order Rodentia included a giant capybara of the family Hydrochoeridae called Neochoerus pinckneyi which weighed roughly 155 pounds. There was also a giant beaver of the family Castoridae called Castoroides ohioensis that measured 9 feet long with a shoulder height of 3 feet and weighed roughly from 330 to 440 pounds. I feel certain that both of these big rodents were prey animals for a hungry grizzly. And of course, there were a great many smaller rodents around.
Ice Age Mammals of North America by Ian M. Lange.
Odd-Toed Ungulates - Order Perissodactyla. There were a variety of horses living in North America during the Pleistocene; all of them went extinct but were later replaced by horses brought in from Europe long after the last Ice Age. Pleistocene horses included: the giant horse Equus giganteus which weighed roughly 1,150 pounds and the pygmy onager Equus tau, a slender-legged donkey weighing roughly 550 pounds. Perhaps the most common horse was called Scott's horse ( Equus scotti ) which was the size of the modern mustang. There were tapirs living in North America; family Tapiridae. These included Merriam's tapir ( Tapirus merriami ), the Vero tapir ( Tapirus veroensis ), Cope's tapir ( Tapirus copei ), and the California tapir ( Tapirus californicus ). There were no rhinoceros in North America during the Pleistocene.
Ice Age Mammals of North America by Ian M. Lange.
Even-Toed Ungulates - Order Artiodactyla. Deer - Family Cervidae. Every kind of deer living in North America today was here during the Pleistocene, and lots more. We know that grizzlies prey upon the larger species such as caribou, elk, and moose. During the Pleistocene, there was a moose even larger than today's specimen; Alces latifrons, the broad-fronted moose. Pronghorns - Family Antilocapridae. There were a large variety of pronghorns during the Ice Age, all of them small and fleet-footed. Not likely a choice prey animal for grizzlies. Saigas - Family Bovidae - Subfamily Antilopinae. These antelope were small and swift; not likely grizzly prey. Sheep, goats, and musk oxen - Subfamily Caprinae. Both the sheep and goats were unlikely prey for grizzly bears. They mostly live in mountainous terrain where they are quick and agile. As for the musk oxen ( Ovibos moschatus ), they are a well-known grizzly prey choice. The modern musk ox of the open tudra can weigh 900 pounds. The shrub ox ( Euceratherium collinum ), Soergel's ox ( Soergelia mayfieldi ), and the woodland musk ox ( Symbos cavifrons ) all lived in North America during the Pleistocene. The muscular shrub ox weighed roughly from 1,500 to 1,700 pounds. Soergel's ox weighed roughly 2,000 pounds. The woodland musk ox was taller but less bulky than the musk ox of the arctic tundra.
Bison, Yaks, and Oxen - Subfamily Bovinae.
There were several bison subspecies living in North America during the last Ice Age besides our two survivors, the plains bison ( Bison bison bison ) and the larger wood bison ( Bison bison athabascae ). There was the ancient bison ( Bison bison antiquus ), the steppe bison ( Bison priscus ), and the giant bison ( Bison latifrons ). The giant bison had a horn-span of 7 feet and could weigh from 2,500 pounds upward to 4,000 pounds. Information from - Ice Age Mammals of North America by Ian M. Lange.
Camels and Llamas ( Suborder Tylopoda ) were widespread throughout Pleistocene North America. Many of these were considerably larger than the modern camels of Africa and Asia ( which are not little animals themselves ). These big camels included Titanotylopus nebraskensis, Titanotylopus spatulus, and Gigantocamelus fricki. Titanotylopus nebraskensis stood 12 feet high at the shoulders and weighed considerably above 1 ton.
Ice Age Mammals of North America by Ian M. Lange.
Piglike Animals - Suborder Suina - Peccaries - Family Tayassuidae. Peccaries were plentiful in Pleistocene North America. Some of them, including our modern collared peccary ( Tayassu tajacu ) stand from 20 to 24 inches high and weigh from 30 to 65 pounds. Other subspecies ( now extinct ) measured from 28 to 30 inches high and were in the size range of modern European wild boars. These big peccaries included the flat-headed peccary ( Platygonus compressus ) and the long-nosed peccary ( Mylohyus nasutus ).
When we compare the modern beaver to the giant beaver, the modern camel to the giant camel, and the modern bison to the giant bison, then the meaning of the term 'mega-fauna' needs no explanation. The Pleistocene grizzly lived in a lush environment with no shortage of 'meat on the hoof.' Without a doubt, the grizzly hunted and killed often, but likely obtained the majority of his meat by scavenging carrion or by displacing other 'more adequate' predators from a carcass.
Without a doubt, mammoths and mastodons were not on the grizzly's prey list; but they were on his menu. No grizzly is going to ignore a carcass of mammoth proportions.
Ice Age Mammals by Ian M. Lange. Elephants and Their Relatives - Order Proboscidea. American Mastodon ( Mammut americanum ). The American mastodon had shorter legs and was more heavily muscled than mammoths and also had a longer body than woolly mammoths did. He stood roughly 10 feet high and weighed up to 8 tons with tusks measuring up to 9 feet long. The southern mammoth ( Mammuthus meridionalis ) stood roughly 12 feet high and weighed about 10 tons. The Columbian mammoth ( Mammuthus imperator ) stood from 12 to 13 feet high with tusks measuring up to 13 feet long. Jefferson's mammoth ( Mammuthus jeffersonii ) stood about 11 feet high. The woolly mammoth ( Mammuthus primigenius ) attained a shoulder height of up to 14 feet and weighed as much as 10 tons.
http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archi...ts/487502/
How Climate Change Unleashed Humans Upon South America’s Megabeasts A new study suggests that giant bears, sloths, and saber-toothed cats died because warming temperatures cocked the gun, and people pulled the trigger.
A gallery of prehistoric mammals - http://dinosaurs.about.com/od/otherprehi...ammals.htm
http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150722-...ocid=fbbrt
For the last 2.6 million years, ice sheets have repeatedly covered Britain and northern Europe. In these frozen wastes, strange giant animals thrived 
" Blue Babe, a 36,000 yr-old mummified steppe bison found on the Dalton Hwy, frozen in solid soil & uncovered by gold miners in 1979. There are claw & tooth marks in the mummy that have allowed scientists to find the killer: an American lion.
Northern Exposure: U of Alaska's Museum of the North, Fairbanks. " |
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