Extinct animals size

[SameerluvAnimals]

(02-26-2019, 03:41 PM)Catherine Wrote: Equus Giganteus is an impressive horse. I knew there were horse fossils in North America. I thought they were for small horses. I have never heard of Equus Giganteus. It is normal for North America to have horses. Even though the horses we have now are introduced they belong here since we have no more of the horses we should have.

Before some years when i first saw few images of horse evolution, i was surprised that always the smallest equids were mentioned and the giant equids were eliminated. E.giganteus is known only from a tooth, so it's body proportions are unknown. So i wanted to give the build of a draft horse for E.giganteus which might be correct or wrong, we may never know it. If it looked like some common wild horse, it would have had a fairly large body with somewhat leaner legs. (Downs & Miller 1994 and Willoughby 1974 estimated the height of withers at 225 cm and weight at 1608 kg if this giant tooth is indeed a molar. But it may have been a premolar, in that case there are two estimations, 1250 kg and 1320 kg. This is still more than the average weight of a draft horse.)

[Catherine]

Even though we have little information about equus giganteus right now, we might still find intact or partly intact skeletons. 
I wonder why so little has been found. Were they a rare species.

I agree Libby, this is a fun thread. There are so many extinct animals that we have never heard of. I wish we did have some of them back roaming the earth.

[SameerluvAnimals]

Equus sivalensis is the oldest true horse known. The  Arabs, barbs and the thoroughbred horses might have evolved from Equus sivalensis. It could be the largest of the old world fossil horses since it stood 15 hands high. Perhaps it is called as the "Great Indian horse" in Andhra, dated to ca. 75,000 BP.

Fossils have been found in Asia (Siwaliks - Nepal, Jammu & Kashmir and Tamil Nadu, India).

[Catherine]

That is a beautiful horse with the classic looks of a modern horse. Do they think the modern horse is a descendant of this one.
I have never looked into the evolution of horses. I am sure it is very interesting. It is sad that so many beautiful horse species are no longer with us.

[SameerluvAnimals]

Parahelicoprion is a shark-like eugeneodontid holocephalid. It was around 12 m (40 ft) in length or more. Their closest living relatives are ratfish.

Fossils have been found in Asia (Ural Mountains, Russia) and South America (Bolivia). 





Rhamphosuchus was previously thought to be the biggest crocodile, estimated at a length of 15 - 18 m (49 to 59 ft). However, a more recent study suggests that the animal may have been 8 - 11 m (26 - 36 ft) in length, and therefore is not the largest known crocodylian. Nonetheless, it is among the largest crocodylians.

Fossils have been found in Asia (Siwalik Hills, India).

[Catherine]

Interesting. Parahelelicoprion looks like a full shark. Is it a transition species from the shark family to the ratfish?

Rhamphosuchus may have been the biggest when it was thought to be 49ft, but it is no small Crocodylian at 26-36 ft.
Either way it is very large and would have been an impressive sight.

[SameerluvAnimals]

(03-19-2019, 12:31 PM)Catherine Wrote: Interesting. Parahelelicoprion looks like a full shark. Is it a transition species from the shark family to the ratfish?

Rhamphosuchus may have been the biggest when it was thought to be 49ft, but it is no small Crocodylian at 26-36 ft.
Either way it is very large and would have been an impressive sight.

Parahelelicoprion is a eugeneodontid, they are ancient relative of ratfish. For the image, the body almost looks like a shark but who exactly knows how the body of parahelelicoprion looked like. Indeed, at 26-36 ft, rhamphosuchus is no joke and would be terrifying.




Prionosuchus reaches a length of upto 9 m (30 ft), making it the largest amphibian that has ever lived. It has an elongated and tapered snout, numerous sharp teeth, long body, short legs, and a tail adapted for swimming. It's general appearance was very similar to a modern crocodile, particularly to the gharial, and it probably had a similar lifestyle as an ambush aquatic predator feeding on fish and other aquatic animals. 

Fossils have been found in South America (Brazil).




Gigantopithecus roamed the Earth 100,000 years ago. It is the largest ape that ever lived, standing about 1.8–2 m (5.9 – 6.6 ft) in height and weighed in the neighborhood of 180 – 300 kg. Large males may have had an arm span of 3.6 m (12 ft). It most likely walked on all fours as modern gorillas and chimpanzees, when it stood on it's hind legs, it was close to 2.8 m (9 ft) tall.

Fossils have been found in Asia (China, India, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam).

[Catherine]

Prionosuchus looks a lot like a crocodile. There are some differences, but in general it would be easy to mistake it for a crocodile. Amazing that it was an amphibian. I had no idea that there was ever an amphibian that big. It was a different world with creatures like this.

Gigantopithecus is an impressive primate. It was tall even when it walked on four feet. I wonder if it was too heavy to walk upright.
I assume it was not a tree climber. Looking at the face it looks more like a gorilla. I wonder how closely related they are to gorillas and how closely related they were to us.

[SameerluvAnimals]

(03-24-2019, 04:49 PM)Catherine Wrote: Prionosuchus looks a lot like a crocodile. There are some differences, but in general it would be easy to mistake it for a crocodile. Amazing that it was an amphibian. I had no idea that there was ever an amphibian that big. It was a different world with creatures like this.

Gigantopithecus is an impressive primate. It was tall even when it walked on four feet. I wonder if it was too heavy to walk upright.I assume it was not a tree climber. Looking at the face it looks more like a gorilla. I wonder how closely related they are to gorillas and how closely related they were to us.

Indeed prionosuchus somewhat looks like a crocodile and had similar lifestyle. You have to be kidding me, of course gigantopithecus can't be a tree climber. I wonder how it even came to your mind.   Did you note that some fonts look bigger than the other in my recent posts ? I don't know why, you can note this same thing in few of my previous posts.

Rajasaurus was a mid-sized abelisaurid measuring about 6.6 m (22 ft) in length and weighed about a tonne.

Fossils have been found in Asia (Gujarat, India). 

[Catherine]

Quote:You have to be kidding me, of course gigantopithecus can't be a tree climber. I wonder how it even came to your mind. 

That was the point I was making. Whatever else we might know about gigantopithecus, we know it didn't climb trees.

Sometimes my fonts change size as well. I am not sure what causes that.

That is quite a collection of Mammals. I know some of them, but there were a few I didn't know. I didn't realize that there were more than one type of Smilodon. It is sad that so many of these animals are extinct. I just hope that more don't join the list.