Continuing the discussion from What exactly is an oliphaunt?:
This topic about oliphaunts made me wonder what the largest land animal is that is now extinct but which was still existing after humans invented writing (circa 3400BC). I think it’s the woolly mammoth (which lasted until about 2000BC) - but am I forgetting some huge creature?
I believe that aurochs are classified as megafauna. They were still being hunted in the middle ages.
From that article:
The African aurochs may have survived until at least to the Roman period as indicated by fossils found in Buto and Faiyum in the Nile Delta.[35] It was still widespread in Europe during the time of the Roman Empire, when it was widely popular as a battle beast in Roman amphitheatres. Excessive hunting began and continued until it was nearly extinct. By the 13th century, the aurochs existed only in small numbers in Eastern Europe, and hunting it became a privilege of nobles and later royals.[5] Fossils found in West Bengal indicate that the Indian aurochs may have survived until the early 12th century
George R.R. Martin refers aurochs as still being in use in his Game of Thrones books. Perhaps they’re different in Westeros than here on Earth, however.
Thanks. Aurochs weren’t as big as mammoths though.
The Megatherium weren’t as large but they did go up to 4 tons. The probably went extinct 12,000 years ago though. There were some reports they made it more recently, but apparently these have been discredited.
No larger land animal made it to the time of writing than the wooly mammoth.
The 20 ton Rhino relative; Paraceratherium died out many millions of years ago.
The Wooly Mammoth was the 3rd largest after the steppe mammoth I mentioned in the other thread.
My recollection was that this was a dwarf variety on Wrangel Island, but the Wikipedia article on the woolly mammoth informed me they weren’t much smaller than normal (I didn’t see a size though) and there were a few other straggler popations that made it past the OP’s cutoff.
From Google, it seems your original dates for writing and the extinction of the wooly mammoth are correct, so that has to be the answer. I don’t think the aurochs is in the same ballpark.
As there are many animals still around bigger than Aurochs, they really don’t apply. Also they’re on their way back. Breeding programs are attempting to breed back to this stock.
Oh, I bet that will be delicious interesting.
But did a literate person ever encounter a mammoth? It seems to me that the chronological datapoint is rather arbitrary unless we are talking about the possibility of a written record.
And live long enough to write about it…
That’s a reasonable point - but literate people can also report what non-literate people report. Tomorrow afternoon someone could find an inscription talking about a mammoth - which is pretty cool.
That would be cool. Even a description passed down orally through generations to an eventual scribe.
There are mammoth emojis on cave walls.
Moas. Ok, not the heaviest, but they were 12 ft tall! Also, Elephant Birds (not quite as tall, but heavier).
Even cooler would be a talking mammoth.
Paging Doctor Dolittle (and Polynesia the parrot)
So the Aurochs are being slowly bred back but on the cutting edge of science side is the serious attempt to bring back mammoths using African Elephants as the host mother.
or maybe not …
So one possibility would be a wooly mammoth/Elephant hybrid. I think Oliphaunt or Mumak would be a good name for these hybrids.
For all we know, there were talking mammoths. The problem is that none of them could write. Also, I have it on good authority that they were jerks.
So… not welcome here?
