Scimitar cats and short-faced (but long-legged) bears
5 o'clock, November 22, 2003
Not only does Megafauna divide extinct mammals into much more useful categories than does your local paleontologist — Woolly and Huge, for instance, vs. Strange and/or Massive — the site provides a handy set of size charts:
Figure 1. Extinct dog, Osteoborus cynoides (“dog-like bone-crusher”). Described as “small.”
Figure 1. Extinct camel, Camelops hesternus.
Figure 1. Indricotherium transsouralicum, the largest mammal ever to walk the Earth.
My fondness for giant extinct mammals dates to the day when, as a small child, I first stood beneath the full-scale model Indricotherium (then known as Baluchitherium) in Lincoln, Nebraska’s Morrill Hall. Next time you need to hold a private function in Lincoln, consider renting their Elephant Hall. It’s worth it.
Those are such sensible categories -- I especially liked "Interesting Names"! Much livelier than dividing them all according to who's a synapsid or who's a monotreme and whatnot. I never knew the Dire Wolf was an actual creature and not just legend. And I'm oddly touched at the notion of someone officially naming a long-gone creature the Beautiful Armadillo.