Megafauna are large or giant animals. The most common thresholds used are weight over 40 kilograms (90 lb) or 44 kilograms (100 lb). The term is especially associated with the Pleistocene megafauna. Pleistocene megafauna are the land animals often larger than modern counterparts considered archetypical of the last ice age majority of which in northern Eurasia, the Americas and Australia became extinct within the last forty thousand years. Megafaunal species may be subcategorized by their trophic position into megaherbivores (Grass eater), megacarnivores (Meat eater), and, more rarely, megaomnivores (Meat and grass eater). This info or facts are not my research and it are based on other resource. I just combine the information from other to make it easy to read and understand. I wanna give this this credit to paloentologist and researcher that I have take the info.
Metoposaurus
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Illustration picture of Metoposauros
Metaposaurus or Front lizard is one of massive amphibians that ever lived in Triassic era from 227 until 219.5 Mya. This creature is an apex predator that lived in water and is a carnivore . Fossil of this megafauna have been found in France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Canada, USA and also in India. This water dweller can reach 3m in length, weight is about 0.5m and 450kg in weight. Pretty massive right? Yes it is. This creature is very large compared to us although to 1.8 m tall person, the massive body cannot be compared.
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Elasmotherium
From the picture above, what do you think is it? Yup, it is the rhinoceros ancestor but have more and long fur than the modern rhino now. The are three species that have been found, the E. Caucasicum, E. Chaprovicum, and E. Sibiricum. The best known is E. Sibiricum or also called as Siberian Unicorn. This monster is the real unicorn that ever lived. This Siberian Unicorn was the size of a mammoth. The Elasmotherium is meaning Thin plate beast as you can see that this creature has thin and massive plate or horn. And of course the name is picked because of horn on it forehead. Most animal have their name are from their rupa bentuk. There are many theories about the function of horn on its forehead. The theories are defense against predators, attracting mates, driving away competitors, sweeping snow from grass in winter, and digging for water and plants roots. Just as modern day rhino, the Elasmotherium used its lips to graze, this could be done mostly in peace since it didn’t have many natural predators due to its size with 4,5 m long and 1,8 m tall. Elasmotherium lived in late Pleicene through the Pleitocene, existing from 2.6 Ma to at late as 39,000 years ago in Late Pleistocene. Although it has an massive body with 4000kg in weight, this megafaunas can gallop compared to our modern rhinos because of longer limp (leg) that their had. The area that have been found it fossil is in Kazachstan.
Megaloceros Giganteus
Megaloceros Giganteus or The Irish elk or the giant deer or Irish giant deer, is an instinct species of deer in the genus Megaloceros. This deer is also one of the largest deer that ever lived. This deer have lived during the Pleistocene and it was spread across Eurasia from Ireland to Siberia until China. The most remains of the species have been carbon dated to about 7,700 years ago in Siberia. As you see in the illustration picture above, this elk’s antlers is very big compared it body and our modern day elk or deer. Scientists have proposed multiple theories regarding the evolution of the its antlers. One theory is that their antlers, under constant and strong sexual selection, increased in size because males were using them in combat for access to females as our modern day animals.
Megatherium
Megatherium is selected from Greek that mean Great (Mega) Beast (Therion). Look at it illustration picture, it is a Megafauna with massive body. What do you it is? Hurmm.. This is ancestor of the slowest mammal, sloth. Wow! Pretty impressive right, this sloth ancestor was a genus of ground sloth. Back then, sloth is massive ground mammal before evolve to be small and tree climber. Why this giant evolve to be small creature? This giant ground sloth was endemic to South America that lived from the Early Pliocene through the end of Pleistocene. How big was it? It was largest and only a few other land mammals equaled or exceeded Megatherium in size, such as Large Proboscideans and the Giant Rhinoceros Paraceratherium. Because of its size, it was labeled as one of the largest land mammals known to have existed with weighing up to 4 tonnes and measuring up to 6 m or 20 ft in length from head to tail. Big enough, huh! Its size enabled it to feed at heights unreachable by other contemporary herbivores. Rising on its powerful hind legs and using its tail to form a tripod, Megatherium could support its massive body weight while using the curved claws on its long forelegs to pull down branches with the choicest leaves. The remain unchanged feature of this Giant monster from our modern day sloth is it curved claws. This sloth, like a modern anteater, walked on the sides of its feet because its claws prevented it from putting them flat on the ground.
Megalania
As you can see, this creature much look liked our modern day Komodos especially. Yes it was the Komodo or monitor lizard ancestor. This is an instinct Giant Goanna or monitor lizard. It was recognised as either Megalania Prisca or Varanus Priscus. They were part of the megafaunal assemblage that inhabited southern Australian during the Peistocene. The youngest fossil remains dated to around 50,000 years ago. Mengikut scientist or Paleontologist, the first aboriginal settlers of Australia might have encountered them and been a factor in their extinction. The lack of complete or nearly complete fossil skeletons has made it difficult to determine the exact dimensions of Megalania. But early estimates placed the length of the largest individuals at 7 m or 23 ft, with a maximum weight of approximately 600-620 kg or 1,320 to 1,370 lb. This estimation was changed 2 times by Stephen Wroe in 2002 until the last estimation he and other researchers did on 2009 to at least 5.5 m (18 ft) and 575 kg (1,268 lb).
Procoptodon
Procoptodon was an ancestor of modern kangaroos. This megafauna was living approximately 2 million to 10,000 years ago, during the Pleistocene to the Modern Period. For intance, this animal stood about 10 ft tall and weighed around 500 pounds. The average of modern day kangaroos is 4.9 ft tall and weights around 200 pounds. As you can see, Procoptodon was at least twice as big compared to their new generation in our modern day. If you think about the kangaroo, what comes to your mind especially their ability? Yes, of course! A kangaroo can hop or jump far. But this animals couldn’t hop. You may be shocked with this fascinating facts about Procoptodon. Through the research done, scientists have examined the structure of this marsupials legs and have concluded that if it hopped, it would put so much stress on its joints and tendons that it would have injured itself. Although it has big legs like the modern day kangaroos, the massive body its has causes the inability to hop. Therefore, scientists believe that this animal either walked or ran on their legs.
Brontonemys
Brontonemys Denham or Denham’s Thunder Turtle is large species of side-necked turtle (Pleurodira). This massive reptile was endemic to the swamplands of Skull Island. Unlike its mainland relatives who rarely exceed a few kilograms in weigh, Brontonemys is a giant, rivalling most Proboscideans in size. The adult male of Brontonemys typically weigh around 11,520 kg and are on average 30 percent larger than the female which typically weigh just 8,861.5 kg. As you can see, this reptile is very large compared to our modern day turtle although for penyu belimbing. This species very clearly displays insular gigantism, having reached their gigantic size upon arriving on the island at most 20 million years ago. Most likely by migrating across now submerged land bridges connecting Skull Island to mainland Indonesia or by riding on natural formed rafts or simply by swimming the 600 km from the island of Sumatra’s coast. It can be assumed the species evolved is enormous size and protective shell to defend itself against predators like its new generation turtle. Another possible explanation for its large size would be the absence of the other competitive large herbivores on the island thus opening the niche of large herbivore to the newly arrived turtle.
