Fossil hunters have uncovered the greatest rodent that ever lived -- a one-tonne behemoth that bestrode the swamplands of South America four million years ago.
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So what fed on that - Sabre-toothed tigers?
Fossil hunters have uncovered the greatest rodent that ever lived -- a one-tonne behemoth that bestrode the swamplands of South America four million years ago.
Sabretooths were smaller than this. Tigers can attack elephants, but it's a tough battle. I don't know how often it happens. They can't slash that thick hide with their claws, all they can do is hang on and bite, while the much more powerful elephant rolls over on them and stomps them.So what fed on that - Sabre-toothed tigers?
A ten-foot-tall bird is really no match for a ten-foot-long mammal, no matter how well-armed the bird and how poorly-armed the mammal. I doubt that those specialized wing-blades could cut through such thick hide, and the rodent probably outweighed it by a factor of five or six. If the birds were pack-hunters, then that might be a different story. There are no flightless predatory modern birds to judge it by.At the same time as the Phorusrhacids
Well sure, if we have archetypal instinctive memories that go back millions of years, before our own species arose.I guess the old mythologies of battling giant monsters must be true!
If you're talking about the rodent and not the bird, the article states that it was a grazer, not a hunter. The drawing makes it look like nothing more than an overgrown capybara. I've seen them, just gigantic gophers. They're harmless.Heh, wouldn't wanna come across THAT thing.
Only the largest specimens of the largest species of bears (e.g., grizzlies and polar bears) get anywhere near that big. Most of them don't get a whole lot larger than the largest (reasonably healthy) humans. And they don't have the same diet at all. Bears are carnivores. They're also capable of being omnivorous, eating fruits, insects, and our garbage, but they're opportunistic hunters and happily kill and eat other animals when they're not raiding your pantry. The article makes it clear that this animal was strictly herbivorous.would it really be any different than a bear? same body size, same diet, same speed, etc.
I can't find anything on the history of the bovines, the subfamily of ten species of ruminants (multi-stomached cud-chewing grazers) widely used for food, including the ones that have been domesticated: cattle, yaks, water buffalo and (lately) bison. If you mean "prehistoric" literally, then sure, most of these species must have been around for at least a couple of million years just like us. But the entire family of bovids (don't you just love the creative terminology of biologists?) goes back twenty million years. That includes the bovines, sheep, goats, antelopes, gazelles, wildebeest, and a few others that you'll probably only see in the zoo or on a nature program.Were there any prehistoric cows?