The BIGGEST Animals That Existed Alongside Humans

No human ever had to fight a dinosaur - but they probably did fight these creatures.

"The Late Pleistocene to the beginning of the Holocene saw numerous extinctions of predominantly megafaunal (typically defined as having body masses over 44 kilograms (97 lb)) animal species (the Pleistocene megafauna), which resulted in a collapse in faunal density and diversity across the globe. The extinctions during the Late Pleistocene are differentiated from previous extinctions by the widespread absence of ecological succession to replace these extinct megafaunal species, and the regime shift of previously established faunal relationships and habitats as a consequence. The timing and severity of the extinctions varied by region and are thought to have been driven by varying combinations of human and climatic factors. Human impact on megafauna populations is thought to have been driven by hunting ("overkill"), as well as possibly environmental alteration. The relative importance of human vs climatic factors in the extinctions has been the subject of long-running controversy.
Major extinctions occurred in Australia-New Guinea (Sahul) beginning approximately 50,000 years ago and in the Americas about 13,000 years ago, coinciding in time with the early human migrations into these regions. Extinctions in northern Eurasia were staggered over tens of thousands of years between 50,000 and 10,000 years ago, while extinctions in the Americas were virtually simultaneous, spanning only 3000 years at most. Overall, during Late Pleistocene about 65% of all megafaunal species worldwide became extinct, rising to 72% in North America, 83% in South America and 88% in Australia, with all mammals over 1,000 kilograms (2,200 lb) becoming extinct in Australia and the Americas. Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia experienced much lower extinctions than other regions."

More on Wikipedia:

[terricbooth]

Quick correction with the gigantopithecus explanation. Porcupines are actually the only reason why we have a fossil record on them. Gigantopithecus lived in areas heavy in rainforests, which are known to have acidic soil. The acidity of the soil actually dissolves the bones before they ever have a chance to fossilize. Where you got mixed up with the porcupines, is because they did in fact live in the same area, and yes, ate their bones. It helps give them the nutrients to produce their quills, so eating/gnawing bones is actually common for them. The cool part is that these porcupine dens were actually WAY better fossilization conditions, compared to the forest floor. Therefore as of the moment these fossilized porcupine dens are actually the ONLY place that we find these jaws and molars. Thanks spikey bois 👍

[purplehaze]

"No human ever looked up at a dinosaur and said, 'Uh-oh'."
Aeschylus certainly did when one dropped a turtle on his head.

[DreadEnder]

I love how YouTube autocorrects Qxir to acid

[compatriot]

Rule of thumb when it comes to animals that lived alongside early humans. We probably ate them.

Woolly rhinos, mammoths, etc. Nothing was safe from a bunch of hungry guys with pointy sticks

[muhdiversity]

All the ladies in prehistory were terminally single because the only dude was below 6 feet tall. RIP.

[hanoord]

"You see this massive hairless freak standing on two legs"

Hey wait... thats us!

[weednose]

nah, i'd win






All the doubters, they clearly don’t smell my aura. I alone am the drunk driver

[BubblewrapOracle]

6:15 I love how the thing's "expression" —frown, bottom eyelid raised— make it look like it's about to say, "How about you glypto- don't" to a giant ground sloth thinking of flipping it over and attacking its weak point for massive damage.

[thememeguy]

An animal you didn't mention was Palaeoloxodon. Which is surprising since it's such a crazy animal when you think about it. A 16ft tall, 20+ ton living tank made of 200% muscle. Almost 2x the size of a current day elephant.

[.......]

The Glyptdont shell would make a kick ass clubhouse

[izz]

with the accent all i could hear was "gigantopithecus black guy"

[lavasharkandboygirl]

I’m kind of shocked that you didn’t mention New Zealand’s Moa birds. Those things were gigantic and only went extinct during the Middle Ages, about 600 years ago.

[muggsyl]

Keep up the good work Qxir love watching your channel grow❤️

[bryanthardin]

The idea of giant kangaroos stomping around like Australian T-Rexes brings a smile to my face

[Hliosphan]

Just a slight correction, humans probably weren't 5'11" thousands of years ago. Closer to 5ft up to 5ft 5in. To do with Modern nutrition probably. Doesn't matter for the scale probably though.

[Kreeos]

I absolutely adore your accent. Could listen to you narrate all day.

[DreadEnder]

If you want a scary marsupial, let me introduce you to Thylacoleo, aka the marsupial lion! It’s basically a lion with the teeth of a beaver and lives in Australia.

[johngamer]

Suprised he didn't mention the haast eagle, which definitely existed at the same time as early settlers and had the ability to take on a 230kg Moa. It was the biggest eagle to ever exist with a speculated weight of 15 kg

[ThunderSims]

"StEpPe MaMmOtH, wHaT aRe YoU DoInG?"

[Olanius_Pius]

Its amazing how effective the spear was. 5 or 6 people with spears getting a couple deep spear impacts on an animal before falling back and letting it bleed heavily before closing back in to stab it some more is a terrifying strategy.