beavers the size of bears

Shard O'Glase

First Post
Snapple real fact #123 beavers were once the size of bears.

Ok so its a dire beaver I suppose, use dire badger maybe as a template.

Besides the point I suppose but anyone else know of any cool trivia which would turn an ordinary creature into a cool monster in a savage land like scenario?

And anyone know just what kind of bear we are talking about size wise for this former beaver.
 

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They have found fossils in Scandinavia of sabretooth cats. Your normal, average, housecat sized creature (only slightly larger)... with sabreteeth. It preyed on deer and the like.

Basically, the real world equivalent of the Vorpal Bunny from Monty Python. (source: Jurassica on the Discovery Channel.)

Rav
 

There were once kangaroos with horns in Australia.

Can you imagine the charging damage of one of those guys leaping at you, horns-first?
 

Argent... yes, that was my first thought too, I'm ashamed to say. ;)

Aaron L -- yes, ursids (bears) and canids (dogs, wolves, foxes, etc) are both arctoid carnivores, which means they are from one branch of the carnivore family tree (which is seperate from the aureloid branch with it's cats and hyenas) but so are mustelids (weasels, otters, wolverines, badgers) and a few other various critters, like mongooses and seals (!). There are also some extinct groups, including some that are sorta hybrids in body plan between wolves and bears. There were also various other niches the clan spread out into over the years -- the short faced bear which went extinct only a few thousand years ago and is relatively common at La Brea was a slim(mish) bear with long legs; probably an active hunter and good runner, and the largest carnivore (from the order Carnivora -- obviously things like T. rex were bigger) ever. The dire wolf isn't really a big wolf, it's a robust, powerfully built dog of some kind, with very large, strong jaws. It's believed they may have been borophagine, that is, they chomped on the entire carcass, bones and all, somewhat hyena-like. There were a lot of North American "dogs" that followed this particular niche over the last several million years.

Ravellion -- yeah, none of the cats have ever really been bigger than a Siberian tiger, really. Some have been about as big, or lion sized at least (which is still pretty frikkin big, really) but this myth that ancient mammals were all humongous really is that, a myth. Although there really was a giant "beaver" during the interglacials of North America.
 

Aaron L said:
Bears and wolves descended from the same animal, A giant bearwolf type beast, I believe.

The Amphicyon giganteus, according to GURPS Dinosaur's prehistoric mammals section, lived from the Middle Oligocene to the Late Pliocene (30 to 2 million years ago). it was "the largest of the 'bear-dogs,' resembling a grizzly-sized bear with the head and tail of a wolf. it is much less omnivorous than modern bears, preying mostly on the slow-moving herbivores of its time."

more intimidating is the Andrewsarchus, the largest land mammalian predator. clocking in at "19 feet long, and standing 8 feet tall at the shoulder. its skull alone is 3 feet long and 2 feet wide... its teeth are very large and sharp... it seems to have been an ancestor of modern whales."

the book covers a bunch of other interesting early mammals, such as the carnivorous kangaroo, the giant hyena, the "vampire cat", the executioner marsupial lion, the giant baboon, and others.

of course, it's got plenty of great info on dinosaurs as well. :)

another favorite of mine from that book is a giant condor from the Pleistocene that stood 6 feet tall and had a twenty-foot wingspan. it was as heavy as an ostrich, but it could still fly.
 

Ah yes, the amphicyonids. I was struggling with remembering that name! :) Andrewsarchus isn't ancestral to whales per se; it's related to whale ancestors. We think. :) And what's a carnivorous kangaroo; a Tylacoleo? I've having trouble with that one. And "vampire cats" too. Giant hyena's no big deal -- there was a whole radiation of hyenas that were all essentially replaced by canine species gradually over the last few million years except for in Africa. Africa really does have an atypical megafauna, and has for some time.
 
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You know, now that you mention it, I thought I read somewhere recently that a giant beaver had been dug up around stonehenge.
 
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