Giant Beavers

This has to be my favourite of all the Pleistocene megafauna creatures, a gigantic beaver ! What a cool period in evolution... (well very cool infact as it was the middle of an ice age), imagine all these familiar animals of today but supersized !

Some other favourites are the giant penguin (Anthropornis nordeskjoeldi) or equally as ugly the giant sloth (Megalonyx jeffersonii). Australia had a an interesting array of megafauna too including a giant wombat like thing called a Diprotodon and a colossal kangaroo (Procoptodon) which grew to 3 metres high.

Sadly most of these amazing creatures shrunk/became extinct around 45,000 years ago due to climate change and possible human over hunting (come on... who could resist a gaint beaver steak for dinner), some lasted till more recent times–there were Woolly Mammoths still roaming Russia's Wrangel Island up until 1700 BC. 70% of the Woolly Mammoth genome has been decoded and so it might not be too long until some of these giants walk again... bring back the giant beavers I say...