Freakishly large, wacky looking, and mostly extinct, "megafauna" refers to very large animals, or scarily huge versions of typically smaller animals. Today Jon and Carol are joined by our first ever special guest Nathan. We discuss the magical world of the Pleistocene, and the stupidly big animals that ruled this world for thousands of years. Where did they go? Why were they so big? Hopefully, Wikipedia has the answers. We talk about how cool it would be to ride a wooly mammoth, ducks with razor-sharp teeth (?) and why SyFi network hasn't made a Titanoboa vs Sharknado movie. Then, our hardest quiz ever: Was It Real?
We really want to hear from you, dear listener! Any suggestions, ideas, critiques, musings, thoughts, and words are very welcome. Send them to feedback@weirdwikiworld.com. Follow us on Twitter @WeridWikiWorld and follow Jon @JonGabrielB.
Read along with us on Wikipedia! We start out here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megafauna
Get more specific with the extinct megafauna of the Pleistocene: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleistocene_megafauna
Some of the more interesting animals we talk about:
Giant Ground Sloths: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_sloth
Titanoboa, the longest and heaviest snake of all time: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanoboa
Paraceratherium, the largest land mammal ever, was a long-necked, hornless rhino: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraceratherium
Special music this week from Emily Chavez. Buy her awesome first album at emilychavez.bandcamp.com.
