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Animals of the Pleistocene

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These herbivores (plant-eaters) had long, dense hair and underfur, large ears (but much smaller than modern-day elephants), a long proboscis (nose), and long tusks. – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Animals of the Pleistocene


1
Animals of the Pleistocene
  • Mastadons, Mammoths, Giant Sloths, Saber Tooth
    Cats

2
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3
Mastadons
  • Became extinct about 11,000 years ago
  • The American mastodon (scientific name Mammut
    americanum) roamed North America from at least
    3.75 million to 11,000 years ago.
  • Mastodons, along with mammoths and modern
    elephants, are members of the order Proboscidea.
  • As adults they stood between 2.5 and 3 meters
    (8-10 feet) at the shoulder and weighed betweeen
    3500 and 5400 kilograms (4-6 tons).

4
Mammoths
  • Mammoths (genus Mammuthus) are extinct
    elephant-like animals that were adapted to cold
    weather. These herbivores (plant-eaters) had
    long, dense hair and underfur, large ears (but
    much smaller than modern-day elephants), a long
    proboscis (nose), and long tusks. Both the males
    and the females had tusks the tusks were really
    incisor teeth.
  • Mammoths lived from about 2 million years ago to
    9,000 years ago, during the last ice age (the
    Pleistocene Epoch). This was millions of years
    after the dinosaurs went extinct. These huge
    mammals lived throughout the world.
  • The various mammoths ranged in size from about 9
    ft (2.7 m) tall to over 15 ft (4.5 m) tall. Some
    species had tusks that were straight, some had
    tusks that were curved. The longest tusks were
    over 17 feet (5.2 m) long. The tusks were used in
    mating rituals, for protection, and for digging
    in the snow for food.

5
The Difference
  • Mammoths and MastodonsMammoths had longer tusks
    than mastodons, a wider head, a sloping back,
    flat, chewing teeth, a trunk with two finger-like
    projections, and were mostly taller. Mastodons
    evolved earlier and lasted longer in geologic
    time.

6
Sabertooth Cat
  • With their enormous, deadly-sharp canines,
    saber-toothed carnivores are well known to many
    people as frightening and ferocious predators of
    the Cenozoic. Surprisingly, there is more than
    one "saber-toothed cat." The sabertooth
    morphology has appeared several times during the
    history of the mammals.
  • Why the enormous teeth? Certainly they were used
    in hunting, but opinions vary as to exactly how
    they were used. Some paleontologists have
    suggested that they were used to grab and hold
    onto prey. However, attacking a large herbivore
    this way could easily break the saber teeth and
    saber teeth that were demonstrably broken during
    an animal's lifetime are rare in fossil deposits.
    A more plausible hypothesis suggests that saber
    teeth were used to deliver a fatal ripping wound
    to the belly or throat of a prey animal.
    Sabertooth carnivores may not have tried to
    grapple with prey. More likely, they delivered
    one crippling stab wound and then waited for the
    prey to die.

7
Giant Sloth
  • A few thousand years ago the Americas were the
    land of giant ground sloths. They were a bit more
    impressive than their tree-dwelling cousins, but
    would probably have been equally odd-looking.
    Megatherium was a huge sloth, almost 6m long, and
    because it became extinct so recently, mummified
    skin and dung has been discovered in dry caves in
    North America helping to reconstruct exactly what
    it looked like and how it behaved.
  • The biggest surprise has come from the fossilised
    trackways of Megatherium. These have revealed the
    amazing fact that these giants regularly walked
    upright on their hind legs. The giant sloths must
    have weighed almost four tonnes (nearly as much
    as an African elephant), and so walking on only
    two legs would have put a tremendous strain on
    their skeletons.
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