mylifeistelevision:

skunkbear:

The past is packed with monsters! Behemoths by the dozen!
Let’s meet these fossils! (and their less colossal modern cousins)

Earth’s ancient history is full of giant versions of modern animals. Evolutionary forces (competition for resources, changes in climate) pushed these species to become incredibly large. And I’m not just talking about giant dinosaurs - there were huge mammals and marsupials too. 

A lot of these giants lived in the Pleistocene, an epoch stretching from around 2.5 million to 11,000 years ago. Mysteriously, the extinction of many of these animals coincides with humanity’s arrival as a dominant predator.

Watch a video / listen to a poem about these prehistoric monsters.

Illustrations by Mary McLain

Except the whales were all like “hell nah, we’re gonna get SWOLE, bros”

fightblr:

• Tigers may be extinct within 12 years
• Amur leopards - of which only about 35 are thought to exist in the wild - may be extinct within 3 or 4 years.
• In the 70s and 80s, 18,000 jaguars were killed each year for their fur. The numbers are still rapidly declining.
• Half of Africa’s lion populations face extinction within the next 40 years.

Credits are noted in the image. 

>:|
STOP KILLING AWESOME SHIT!!!