Post by dinosauria101 on Jul 14, 2019 15:25:06 GMT 5
American Mastodon - Mammut americanum
Mastodons are any species of extinct proboscideans in the genus Mammut (family Mammutidae), distantly related to elephants, that inhabited North and Central America during the late Miocene or late Pliocene up to their extinction at the end of the Pleistocene 10,000 to 11,000 years ago. Mastodons lived in herds and were predominantly forest dwelling animals that fed on a mixed diet obtained by browsing and grazing with a seasonal preference for browsing, similar to living elephants. M. americanum, the American mastodon, is the youngest and best-known species of the genus. They disappeared from North America as part of a mass extinction of most of the Pleistocene megafauna, widely believed to have been caused by overexploitation by Clovis hunters, and possibly also by climate change. Modern reconstructions based on partial and skeletal remains reveal that mastodons were very similar in appearance to elephants and, to a lesser degree, mammoths, though not closely related to either one. Compared to mammoths, mastodons had shorter legs, a longer body and were more heavily muscled, a build similar to that of the current Asian elephants. The average body size of the species M. americanum was around 2.3 m (7 ft 7 in) in height at the shoulders, corresponding to a large female or a small male; large males were up to 2.8 m (9 ft 2 in) in height. Among the largest male specimens, the 35-year-old AMNH 9950 was 2.89 m (9.5 ft) tall and weighed 7.8 tonnes (7.7 long tons; 8.6 short tons), while another was 3.25 m (10.7 ft) tall and weighed 11 tonnes (11 long tons; 12 short tons).
Purussaurus brasiliensis
Purussaurus is an extinct genus of giant caiman that lived in South America during the Miocene epoch, 8 million years ago. It is known from skull material found in the Brazilian, Colombian and Peruvian Amazonia, and northern Venezuela. The skull length of the largest known individual of the type species, P. brasiliensis is 1,453 millimetres (57.2 in). It has been estimated that P. brasiliensis reached about 10.3 metres (34 ft) in length, weighing about 5.16 metric tons (5.69 short tons). Another estimate gave a larger size of 12.5 metres (41 ft) in length and 8.4 metric tons (9.3 short tons) in weight, with a mean daily food intake of 40.6 kilograms (90 lb). Bite force has been estimated to be around 69,000 N (around 7 metric tons-force).. Two other extinct crocodilians, Sarcosuchus and Deinosuchus, have similar proportions, but both are geologically much older, dating from the Early and Late Cretaceous, respectively, and another from the Miocene of India, Rhamphosuchus, is estimated to be slightly smaller, though assumed to have been proportioned like a gharial. During the summer of 2005, a Franco-Peruvian expedition (the Fitzcarrald expedition) found new fossils of Purussaurus in the Peruvian Amazon (600 km from Lima).
Credit to Wikipedia
Mastodons are any species of extinct proboscideans in the genus Mammut (family Mammutidae), distantly related to elephants, that inhabited North and Central America during the late Miocene or late Pliocene up to their extinction at the end of the Pleistocene 10,000 to 11,000 years ago. Mastodons lived in herds and were predominantly forest dwelling animals that fed on a mixed diet obtained by browsing and grazing with a seasonal preference for browsing, similar to living elephants. M. americanum, the American mastodon, is the youngest and best-known species of the genus. They disappeared from North America as part of a mass extinction of most of the Pleistocene megafauna, widely believed to have been caused by overexploitation by Clovis hunters, and possibly also by climate change. Modern reconstructions based on partial and skeletal remains reveal that mastodons were very similar in appearance to elephants and, to a lesser degree, mammoths, though not closely related to either one. Compared to mammoths, mastodons had shorter legs, a longer body and were more heavily muscled, a build similar to that of the current Asian elephants. The average body size of the species M. americanum was around 2.3 m (7 ft 7 in) in height at the shoulders, corresponding to a large female or a small male; large males were up to 2.8 m (9 ft 2 in) in height. Among the largest male specimens, the 35-year-old AMNH 9950 was 2.89 m (9.5 ft) tall and weighed 7.8 tonnes (7.7 long tons; 8.6 short tons), while another was 3.25 m (10.7 ft) tall and weighed 11 tonnes (11 long tons; 12 short tons).
Purussaurus brasiliensis
Purussaurus is an extinct genus of giant caiman that lived in South America during the Miocene epoch, 8 million years ago. It is known from skull material found in the Brazilian, Colombian and Peruvian Amazonia, and northern Venezuela. The skull length of the largest known individual of the type species, P. brasiliensis is 1,453 millimetres (57.2 in). It has been estimated that P. brasiliensis reached about 10.3 metres (34 ft) in length, weighing about 5.16 metric tons (5.69 short tons). Another estimate gave a larger size of 12.5 metres (41 ft) in length and 8.4 metric tons (9.3 short tons) in weight, with a mean daily food intake of 40.6 kilograms (90 lb). Bite force has been estimated to be around 69,000 N (around 7 metric tons-force).. Two other extinct crocodilians, Sarcosuchus and Deinosuchus, have similar proportions, but both are geologically much older, dating from the Early and Late Cretaceous, respectively, and another from the Miocene of India, Rhamphosuchus, is estimated to be slightly smaller, though assumed to have been proportioned like a gharial. During the summer of 2005, a Franco-Peruvian expedition (the Fitzcarrald expedition) found new fossils of Purussaurus in the Peruvian Amazon (600 km from Lima).
Credit to Wikipedia
