Monthly Archives: July 2014

Crash of the Titans

Posted on July 30, 2014 by twilightbeasts

Rhinoceros are magnificent beasts. Their muscular and armored bodies sit on top of thick, stocky, legs giving these animals a literally awesome sense of power. Their massive heads, topped with it’s unique horn creates an ancient, almost mythical, persona to this … Continue reading →

Posted in Woolly Rhinoceros | Tagged Bison, Black Rhinoceros, Ceratotherium simum, Christol’s rhinoceros, Coelodonta antiquitatis, Dicerorhins hemitoechus, Dicerorhinus etruscus, Dicerorhinus kirchbergensis, Dicerorhinus megarhinus, Dicerorhinus sumatrensis, Diceros bicornis, Etruscan rhinoceros, Homo sapiens, Indian Rhinoceros, Javan Rhinoceros, Merck’s rhinoceros, reindeer, Rhinoceros, Rhinoceros sondaicus, Rhinoceros unicornis, Steppe rhinoceros, Sumatran Rhinoceros, White Rhinoceros, woolly mammoths, Woolly rhinoceros | 20 Comments

The beasts within

Posted on July 24, 2014 by twilightbeasts

Ask anyone to think of Pleistocene beasts and they will invariably conjure up images of herds of woolly mammoth, bison and horses sweeping majestically across the grassy plains, perhaps with a pack of dire wolves or lone short-faced bear stalking … Continue reading →

Posted in Parasites | Tagged Archeococcidia nothrotheriopsae, Bison, co-extinction, coccidians, Dire Wolves, fluke worms, hepatazoons, Horse, lice, mites, nematodes, Parasite, roundworms, Shasta ground sloth, Short-faced Bear, Strongyloides shastensis, Trematodes, Woolly Mammoth | 2 Comments

Of dwarfs and dragons

Posted on July 21, 2014 by twilightbeasts

Stegodons were just one branch of the rather diverse probiscidean family tree (the family that includes elephants, mastodons, gomphotheres and mammoths). The stegodons, like the mammoths and elephants, are generally thought to have arisen in Africa, and ended up in Asia, … Continue reading →

Posted in Stegodon | Tagged Elephant, Elephantidae, Elephas celebensis, Flores, Gomphothere, Homo floresiensis, Komodo dragon, Mammoth, Mastodon, Proboscidea, Stegodon, Stegodon aurorae, Stegodon florensis insularis, Stegodon sondaari, Stegodon trigoncephalus, Stegologphodon | 4 Comments

Mammoths!

Posted on July 18, 2014 by twilightbeasts

The first animal that pops into anyone’s head when you say ‘Ice Age’ will be the woolly mammoth. This is the iconic animal of the Pleistocene. There were other large proboscideans lolloping across the landscape, including the mastodon and the … Continue reading →

Posted in Woolly Mammoth | Tagged 10000BC, Bering Straits, Charles Knight, Chauvet Caves, Font-de-Gaume, Gompothere, Grotte de CUssac, Hyena, Ice Age, Lyuba, Mammoth Steppe, Mammuthus meridionalis, Mammuthus primigenius, Mammuthus subplanifrons, Mammuthus trogontherii, Mastodon, Neanderthal, Siberia, Southern Mammoth, Steppe Mammoth, Woolly Mammoth, Woolly rhinoceros, Wrangle Island | 38 Comments

The lolloping shovel mouth

Posted on July 16, 2014 by twilightbeasts

My first introduction to gomphotheres was a research critique of a seminal Quaternary paper by Janzen in ‘Science’ journal. Something about these peculiar and ungainly looking distant cousins of today’s noble elephant fascinated me! Everyone has of course heard of woolly … Continue reading →

Posted in Gompothere | Tagged Auel, Beringa, Clovis culture, Cuvieronius, Gomphothere, Gomphotheridiiae, Great American Biotic Interchange, Isthmus of Panama, Land bridge, Mammut americanum, Mammuthus primigenius, Mastodon, Proboscidean Datum Event, Stegomastodon, Woolly Mammoth | 10 Comments

The Nipple Tooth

Posted on July 14, 2014 by twilightbeasts

In the everyday language of superlatives “mammoth” and “mastodon” are used almost interchangeably. Yet, despite superficial similarities due to homology through shared ancestry, the animals could not be more different. Mastodons are known from both the old world and … Continue reading →

Posted in Mastodon | Tagged Charles Kn, Clovis culture, Mammoth, Mammut americanum, Mastodon, Megalonyx jeffersonii, Schreger lines, Thomas Jefferson | 21 Comments

America’s original razorbacks

Posted on July 12, 2014 by twilightbeasts

Peccaries are a family of superficially pig-like artiodactyls, sometimes erroneously called “wild pigs” or “New World pigs”. Both pigs (Suidae) and peccaries (Tayassuidae) have relatively large heads with a cartilaginous disc at the tip of the rostrum and tough, leathery … Continue reading →

Posted in Peccary | Tagged Catagonus wagneri, Chacoan Peccary, Collared Peccary, convergent evolution, Flat-headed Peccary, Giant Peccary, Long-nosed Peccary, Miocene, Mylohyus nasutus, Oligocene, Panamanian Land Bridge, Pecari maximus, Pecari tajacu, Peccary, Platygonus compressus, Suidae, Tayassu pecari, Tayassuidae, White-lipped Peccary | 9 Comments

Crazy cute Ice Age animal you’ve never heard of

Posted on July 9, 2014 by twilightbeasts

Owl sick is full of exciting surprises. Many birds of prey (owls, kestrels and sparrow hawks for example) will cough up fur balls full of bones. These silent predators struggle to digest the hard parts of the little creatures they feast … Continue reading →

Posted in Jerboa | Tagged Allactaga major, Dipodidae, Great Jerboa, Owl pellets | 1 Comment

To worship the lion

Posted on July 4, 2014 by twilightbeasts

We think of lions, today, as African animals. This is mostly true. However, there is still a tiny refugium of non-African lions, isolated in the Kathiawar peninsula of India, and centred on the Gir forest reserve. Here, 400 or so … Continue reading →

Posted in Cave Lion | Tagged American lion, art, Cave Lion, Chauvet Caves, Extinction, Homotherium latidens, Lascaux Caves, löwenmensch, Pleistocene | 11 Comments

The bear necessities

Posted on July 2, 2014 by twilightbeasts

Humans and bears have a strange relationship. On the one hand we see them as lovable, smart, curious creatures (think Baloo from the Jungle Book). On the other, we have taken great pains to exterminate them wherever and whenever we … Continue reading →

Posted in Cave Bear | Tagged Cave bear, Cave Lion, Chauvet, DNA, Extinction, Homo heidelbergensis, Homo neanderthalensis, Homo sapiens, Last Glacial Maximum, Panethera spelaea, Pleistocene, Ursus deningeri, Ursus ingressus, Ursus spelaeus | 4 Comments

	The most (and least)… on A very brief introduction to…
	The most (and least)… on The Nipple Tooth
	The most (and least)… on The burrowers
	The most (and least)… on The Stuff Of Night-Mares
	The most (and least)… on The beasts within

	The most (and least)… on A very brief introduction to…
	The most (and least)… on The Nipple Tooth
	The most (and least)… on The burrowers
	The most (and least)… on The Stuff Of Night-Mares
	The most (and least)… on The beasts within