The Island of Huge Hamsters and Giant Owls

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Back in the late Miocene epoch, there was an island--or maybe a group of islands-- in the Mediterranean Sea that was populated with fantastic giant beasts. It’s a lesson in the very strange, but very real, powers of natural selection.

Thank you to these paleoartists for allowing us to use their wonderful illustrations:

Produced for PBS Digital Studios

Super special thanks to the following Patreon patrons for helping make Eons possible:

Katie Fichtner, Anthony Callaghan, XULIN GE, Po Foon Kwong, Larry Wilson, Merri Snaidman, Renzo Caimi, Ordenes, John Vanek, Neil H. Gray, Marilyn Wolmart, Esmeralda Rupp-Spangle, Gregory Donovan, Ehit Dinesh Agarwal, الخليفي سلطان, Gabriel Cortez, Marcus Lejon, Robert Arévalo, Robert Hill, Kelby Reid, Todd Dittman, Betsy Radley, PS, Philip Slingerland, Jose Garcia, Eric Vonk, Tony Wamsley, Henrik Peteri, Jonathan Wright, Jon Monteiro, James Bording, Brad Nicholls, Miles Chaston, Michael McClellan, Jeff Graham, Maria Humphrey, Nathan Paskett, Connor Jensen, Daisuke Goto, Hubert Rady, Gregory Kintz, Tyson Cleary, Chandler Bass, Maly Lor, Joao Ascensao, Tsee Lee, Sarah Fritts, Ron Harvey Jr, Jacob Gerke, Alex Yan

Want to follow Eons elsewhere on the internet?

[FxUxCxMx]

All of these ancient fauna would be killer as pokemon evolutions

[WhoTheHellIsHarvy]

"water-birds that could neither fly nor swim"
What a massive failure of existence lol

[ipercalisse]

That little hamster sailing at 5:19 with his ship is so powerful and cute I want a movie about him

[TiagoTiagoT]

That 5-horn deer looks surreal, like if they didn't assemble the skeleton correctly or something...

[GetMeThere]

It's hard to over-estimate just how great this channel is, and what a really EXCELLENT use of public funds for education it is.

[zakm]

"Alarmly big hamsters" - best line made me chuckle.

[tatianasearle]

2 fun facts you could have mentioned:
1. It is likely that dwarf elephant sculls are responsible for the Cyclops legend - the Greeks mistook the trunk hole for an eye socket.
2. The dodo was the world's largest pigeon!

[Viatoreptil]

So are Komodo dragons an example of island gigantism evolving from smaller monitors or an example of island dwarfism evolving from the giant Megalania?

[GageoftheJungle]

how about a video of when humans first started domesticating other animals?

[BJETNT]

I just want to say I can't get enough of these type of programs They keep me from pulling my hair out when I'm on drives that are 30 minutes or longer. It's nice getting an education on something I actually want to learn about in a way like this. Thank you so much keep up the good work

[grumpyginger]

How about a video about genetic bottlenecks in species like cheetahs

[madam_mim]

Funny how these gargantuan animals are from ... Gargano. Eh? Eh?

I'll see myself out.

[Nixxinity]

*and island of giant hamsters*

Me- how do i get there?

[Verisky]

Can you guys do a video about convergent evolution between placental vs marsupial mammals?

[ScottLahteine]

Wesley! What about the R.O.U.S.'s?
Rodents Of Unusual Size? I don't think they exist.

[Zeuseides]

A penguin origin story would be pretty neat, I've been loving every of this channel so far, thank you for doing this

[cherrykirsche]

I love her voice so much, and her necklace is super cute and fitting for the show!!

[gorgeousfangirl]

This is one of my favorite channels because it reminds me of when I would only watch animal planet when I was little

[fabiol]

I live in Gargano area and I've never heard of these peculiar beasts that populated my region Puglia before, thanks Eons for this amazingly interesting videos!

[zo]

“Hedgehog-like animals that’s as big as house cats”

shows picture of opossum