Extinct Mammals

While Mammoths and Saber Toothed Tigers died out long ago, modern mammals are increasingly at risk of extinction due to human intervention. Explore some species that are no longer with us.

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Dimetrodon may look for all the world like a dinosaur, but was actually closer, evolutionarily speaking, to humans. Scientists are still trying to figure what their magnificent sails were used for.

ByMark Mancini

The giant castoroides thrived in the Great Plains, the Great Lakes region, the American South and Alaska. So why did this massive beaver die out?

ByMark Mancini

The extinct Titanoboa snake lived around 66 million to 56 million years ago. These things were massive and could reach 50 feet long and 3 feet wide making them the largest snake ever to have roamed the Earth.

ByMark Mancini

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Back in the day, the soupy pre-Amazonian waters were filled with beasts like Stupendemys geographicus, a giant turtle the size of a sensible sedan.

ByJesslyn Shields

The fossilized remains of Simbakubwa kutokaafrika, which means "big lion from Africa," were discovered not once, but twice.

ByMark Mancini

These super-frightening entelodonts (aka hell pigs) once patrolled throughout Eurasia, North America and Africa.

ByMark Mancini

Mid-Jurassic England was teeming with flighted creatures. Now we know it included one pterosaur called Klobiodon rochei.

ByMark Mancini

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The battle clearly ended in a slow death for both massive male beasts.

ByMark Mancini

A 220 million-year-old turtle fossil discovered in China is the first of its kind ever to be found.

ByMark Mancini

肯塔基州在巨大的乳齿象在低last ice age. Jefferson was so fascinated by the creatures he was convinced they still roamed the plains in the 1800s.

ByMark Mancini

Walking evolved not on land but underwater.

ByRobert Lamb

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Paleontologists in China hit the jackpot of fossilized pterosaur eggs.

ByMark Mancini

A new study found that the Beelzebufo frog had a bite strong enough to take down dinosaurs.

ByMark Mancini

Instead of a mouth, the hell ant had blades and a metal horn to catch its prey. Ouch.

ByMelanie Radzicki McManus

A new study suggests the extinct aquatic reptiles used all four flippers for uniquely efficient underwater motion.

ByMark Mancini

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Accidentally tripping on and discovering the fossilized skull of an extinct giant elephant seems like a 9-year-old's dream come true.

ByChristopher Hassiotis

The megapodes were supertall, but that didn't keep them from taking flight.

ByKate Kershner

The method this ancient carnivore employed is unlike anything we see in predators today.

ByJesslyn Shields

The character of King Louie gets a serious primate upgrade in the new Disney live-action-meets-CGI film. Did the ape also serve as inspiration for sasquatch and yeti?

ByLaurie L. Dove

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Scientists thought climate and ecological change was the culprit, but a new study suggests otherwise.

ByChristopher Hassiotis

The bony fish measured more than six feet long and ate prey using a filtering system similar to that of animals today.

ByChristopher Hassiotis

Scientists discover male animals flashed sabers far longer than first thought.

ByAdrian Rogers

Both of these massive prehistoric creatures belonged to the same family, but they're actually very different species.

ByKaren Kirkpatrick

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A lot of prehistoric animals were massive, but do we really know why? And is there a larger animal roaming the planet today?

ByKaren Kirkpatrick&Sarah Gleim

They were creatures of the air, but they aren't part of the avian family tree — and don't call them dinosaurs. What was life like for the pterosaurs, and what has sparked renewed interest in these flying reptiles?

ByClint Pumphrey

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