The most terrible animals that prehistoric man has ever faced

Evolutionary history has witnessed the emergence and extinction of countless mighty creatures, from dinosaurs on land to sea monsters in the ocean.
Humans are a young species, but they also have to face a lot of scary creatures. Here are the most terrible creatures that prehistoric man has ever faced. Perhaps after watching, you will feel lucky because they are not alive today.

Elephant Mammoth Columbia Voi Extinction time: 11,500 years ago Living area: America and Mexico Illustration. Elephant Mammoth, you probably already know. They are huge, have long fur and a pair of huge tusks. They appear in many pictures, documentaries, movies. However, here we are talking about the Columbian Mammoth elephant, which is a relative of the long-haired but larger Mammoth. A Mammoth Columbia can be from 3.7 to 4.2m tall, weighing from 5.5 to 11 tons. Their tusks average 3.7m long, the largest of the elephant family and extremely strong, used to handle any carnivores that dare to come close. Prehistoric people, of course. Lazy land Extinction time: 4200 years ago Living area: South America The sloth is a lovely, harmless creature. The Megatherium is also a sloth, but it’s not like the slow, bully sloths you’re used to seeing. Megatherium also does not live on trees, because no tree can withstand its huge body. Megatherium has several subspecies, the smallest species is as big as a rhinoceros, and the largest can weigh up to 4-5 tons when mature, equivalent to modern African elephants. They can be up to 6m tall, similar to giraffes when standing on 2 legs. In addition, they also have a set of super-large claws used to slap the mouth of any carnivore. The ground sloth finally lived peacefully on the islands of the Caribbean, until about 4200 years ago, when the “species that everyone should fear” set foot and drew an end to the sloths walking on the face. land. Orangutan Gigantopithecus Extinction time: 100,000 years ago Living area: Mainly in Southeast Asia Gigantopithecus was a close relative of modern orangutans but was much larger. They can be 3m tall, weigh up to half a ton and are the most massive primates that have ever walked the Earth. If you need a clearer picture to visualize the size of a Gigantopithecus, check out the cute giant orangutan in The Jungle Book. But that’s in the movies, who knew what such a huge beast could do to a small human? Gigantopithecus went extinct with the main cause not being human. The fact that they are large also means that they need a lot of food to survive. However, about 100,000 years before the climate changed and the forests of their homeland – Southeast Asia – became savanna, Gigantopithecus simply “flies” because there is not enough food. Cave hyena Extinction time: 11,000-13,000 years ago Living area: Europe If you often watch documentaries about wildlife in Africa, such as the Diary of the Cat Family, you are probably familiar with spotted hyenas. These guys have a lot of bad reputations. They are cunning, reckless, attack in herds, scavenge for prey of other species such as leopards and lions or even enter villages to capture children. However, spotted hyenas are still not comparable to their ancient relatives – the cave hyena. Cave hyenas were twice the size of modern spotted hyenas, weighing on average 130kg, 90cm high and 1.5m long. They have extremely strong jaws, enough to chew the bones of their prey. Calculations based on fossils show that a cave hyena can easily kill a small elephant weighing about 1 ton. But that’s not enough to say how scary they are. They still live in groups of about 30 to help hunt more effectively. However, with our ancestors, they are not easy to touch. Cave hyenas became extinct somewhere between 11,000 and 13,000 years ago. The main cause is believed by paleontologists to be that prehistoric people took the caves for shelter during the Ice Age. Sword tooth tiger Extinction time: 10,000 years ago Living area: All Americas The saber-toothed tiger sounds like that, but in fact, they don’t have a close family to the tiger. Most saber-toothed tigers became extinct before modern humans appeared. However, there are still a few that can encounter humans, such as Smilodon populator and Smilodon fatalis. In which, Smilodon fatalis is as big as an African lion, and Smilodon populator is bigger, as big as a Siberian tiger (about 350kg). According to the calculations of paleontologists, saber-toothed tigers have rather weak jaws, the bite force is only about 1/3 of that of modern lions. However, in return, they have other things. In addition to their trademark long fangs, saber-toothed tigers also have extremely muscular forelimbs, the strongest of the cat family to assist in capturing prey before slicing its throat with long scythe-like fangs. Another theory is that they can use these fangs as knives to “skewer” their prey to death. But no matter how they killed their prey, a prehistoric human would surely explode if caught by it.