Extinction

by Douglas Preston

Glyptodons were giant armadillos, the same size and shape as a Volkswagen Beetle.

The indricothere was the largest land mammal that had ever lived, an ancestor of the rhinoceros. It was fully twice the mass of the mammoth, a fifteen-foot behemoth on legs like pillars.

“They’re a bit like horses—they mostly sleep standing up but might lie down for thirty minutes or so. They’re so heavy that if they lie down too long—such as if they’re sick or hurt—they can suffocate.”

“And here is the Irish elk, Megaloceros giganteus … The giant ground sloth, Megatherium americanum … The glyptodon, Glyptodon petaliferus … The giant beaver, Castoroides ohioensis … And finally, our crowning glory, the woolly indricothere, Paraceratherium transouralicum.”

The mammoths, for example, were driven to extinction by humans, as were the ground sloths and probably the Irish elk.