Extinct animals

[ffutures]

Mentioning Prehistoric Park has given me an idea for some fanfic, but it needs a land animal that went extinct say 5000-10000 years ago, somewhere with a hot or desert climate, and would be interesting enough for a time-travelling zoo to want some. Any suggestions?

Comments

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

Sabertoothed cats?

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

No; good idea but they did them in episode 4 of the original series.

[ggreig]

I think my favourite would be the Glyptodon (there's a good example at the Natural History Museum). Hot climate - South and Central America - but not desert; thought to be wet grassland. Very striking visually though.

Second choice would be Megatherium, the giant sloth of South America.

Both went extinct about 10,000 years ago.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Both would be good - thanks!

[ggreig]

Interesting little snippet about the Glyptodon is that they're always found upside down. This is part of the identification of their habitat - it's thought that when they died, they floated in the water before getting stuck somewhere and buried. Don't know if that could be worked into anything.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Poor buggers, must have been a pain lugging all that armour around. Afraid I'm probably going to go with dire wolves though, they're a better fit to the story I want to tell. Although if their habitat overlapped that would work well, I could have both.

[ggreig]

Apparently dire wolves had a huge range, covering much of North and South America, so it's possible. Either way, I'll look forward to reading it.

[timill]

Dire-wolves? Their habitat included "arid savannah".

Also, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_North_American_animals_extinct_in_the_Holocene

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Dire wolves are a good one - right sort of climate etc. - many thanks!