Extinct animals size

[SameerluvAnimals]

(01-09-2020, 05:09 PM)Catherine Wrote: I am used to the Kodiak bears and I thought the cave bear would be much bigger. It is still a big bear. Our smaller black bears are still a good size. 

Caves were definitely not a safe place to live or even enter. Too many big animals used caves as dens. I would be careful of a cave even now.

Black bears are average sized bears, they are somewhat smaller than the African lion. Indeed polar bears are big, they are the largest bears alive today and the next is kodiak bear. You are lucky that you have seen the Kodiak bears. Of course caves are a dangerous place.




The American Lion is perhaps the largest lion in history. It weighed about 250 - 350 kg or more, thus it was about 25% larger than the modern African lion. It was smaller than its contemporary competitor, the giant short- faced bear, arctodus simus which was the largest carnivoran of North America at the time and larger than the saber-toothed cat, smilodon fatalis. The American lion is one of the largest felids, along with smilodon populator but the latter is heavily built. 

Fossils have been found in North America.




The dire wolf is one of the largest canine that ever lived. It was about 5 ft in length and weighed 60 - 110 kg. The dire wolf had a heavier build, it is a sturdier version of the modern gray wolf.

Fossils have been found in North America (Los Angeles) and South  America (Bolivia, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela).