Extinct Animals of Ancient History

The animals who have now sadly been lost to us in modern times, but were encountered by the ancient people of the old world, be it the Romans, Greeks, or Chinese.

Now, there are some animals which I left out of the video due to time constraints, who I will link to here:

Comment about others I missed so I can add them to this list!

Wikipedia Articles for the animals if you want to learn more about them:

Sources Used:

(Non royalty free) Videos used:
Note: All videos should presumably fall under fair use, as not only is a small fraction of the video used, but my video and the means I use these videos falls under education.

Other Websites used:

[iambodybuildingyt]

The world even just 500-600 years ago seems so magical and mysterious

[MichaelMiller-tmos]

In ancient times, very, very few people travelled more than 20 miles from their birthplace. There were some high-end soldiers that travelled far, but even during the Roman Empire, the Roman soldiers posted in areas far from Rome were often the children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren of Roman soldiers who made the journey from Rome.

That said, can you imagine the looks on the faces of the Roman City guards when Hannibal shows up riding a huge grey horse with a snake for a nose and two giant swords coming out of its face?

[akanji]

You don’t really think of cows being intimidating… but to stumble upon a wild territorial giant bull would definitely be something to fear

[redhidinghood]

One of the saddest extinctions for me is the Tasmanian Tiger. Such a unique and majestic animal that died solely because of human activity

[KenoxProductions]

Imagine being an average villager in Italy during Roman times and seeing soldiers riding elephants...

[brucekuehn]

I used to think that European painters and sculptors had a difficult time getting their lions correct or done accurately, but then I found that their models were Barbary Lions. The classic British lion depictions associated with royalty are very similar to photographs of the Barbary Lion which survived in small pockets into the 20th century. Some say that there are still captive descendants. It was a very regal looking animal and the last known aerial photo of one in the Atlas Mtns looks very proud indeed. Look it up.

Going back thousands of years - the Irish Elk had the largest antlers of any relative in the deer family and stood nearly 7 feet at the shoulder. Many good skeletal remains can be found in museums. Those antlers are spectacular!

[dalellll]

The Maori actually have stories about the 'haast eagle', and i read a paper a few years ago comparing the way the animal is coloured in stories from all over, and they find it consistent, as if the oral traditions are faithfully recording it and not drifting anywhere near as much as people would assume. Also some of the stories are about the eagles taking children, which is terrifying.

[TheCanuck-yexm]

Video Timestamps:
0:52 The Eurasian lion
3:54 The Syrian/Chinese elephant
7:28 The Atlas Bear
9:23 The auroch
14:01 Conclusion

[martenmaarten]

i absolutely mourn the loss of dodos the most. they were such peaceful and timid creatures, having known no predators before humans, and i believe they wouldve been amazing companions. especially when you look at their only living relatives, the pigeon, and how incredibly sweet and friendly they can be. instead their timidness were taken advantage of and they were hunted for their, supposedly not even well tasting, meat. a shame.

[kellerlee]

“The worst part of liking cool animals is knowing we missed out on most of them” is the best sentence ive ever heard

[GunBreaux]

The photograph of the last Barbary Lion in the wild is so haunting. It just strides off into the beautiful desert that its species called home.

[bloopboop]

Im shocked that you didnt mention the Dwarf elephants of Cyprus and Crete, which were several species roughly between 4-7 feet tall. There are paintings possibly depicting people having them on leashes because they were so small.

Just the concept of an elephant that was shorter than a child and lived in Europe alone is such a crazy concept to me.

By far the saddest for me are the Moa, Haast's Eagle, and Elephant Bird. All of them died at roughly the same time in history and all of them were probably alive around the time of Christopher Columbus, which would begin the European exploration phase.

[MaevaStardust]

The Barbary Lions were most revered by the Romans. It’s the largest of all lions with mane that goes down to it’s belly. It’s no wonder that this beautiful species is now extinct in the wild. There are only handful of them left in about 80 zoos worldwide and although they are being bred again, experts don’t want to take the risk of introducing them to the wild just yet for fear of poachers.

[kuwerakeith]

We definitely need a part 2 of this video, there's so many more interesting animals.

[wfp]

14:16 the biggest eagle in the world. The Maoris had stories of their children being taken away by them. They died out because their main prey, the Moa, was hunted into extinction by the Maori long before Europeans arrived.

[geslinam]

Cave paintings in France include hyenas and rhinos, different types of big cats. Amazing that they ever lived that far north.

[MrKidroboto]

"The world used to be a bigger place."
"World's still the same. There's just less in it."

[mrkisukes]

Another tragic loss is that of the ezo wolves of Hokkaido, Japan. They were hunted to extinction during the Meiji restoration due to the Japanese wanting to protect their recently imported cattle.

[burnttoast]

To paraphrase
So many wondrous animals, lost like tears in rain.

[kekero]

We always talk about extinct animals but extinct plants can often be more important since they might have some amazing medicinal property