Exotic and Extinct: See Some Different Animals That Have Disappeared

With climate change, we increasingly mention the risk of mass extinction of humanity and other animals, but what little what is said is that these events have already happened several times, so that there are thousands of species that became extinct decades and centuries ago. Check out some of the most exotic and different ones in this article.

Read more: 4 prehistoric animals that can still be seen on Planet Earth

Some of the most unusual animals that ever lived

Many of the animals that went extinct are very different from the vast majority of those seen on Earth today. We're talking about larger, smaller, or exotic versions of some of the species that survived the extinctions. So, some of them may even seem fanciful, but they really existed!

The seven foot beaver

Even today beavers are among us, building dams and being one of the most interesting rodents of all; however, about 10,000 years ago, there was a different type of beaver. Yes, one that had exactly seven legs. This discovery was possible through bones found in the state of Ohio, in the United States.

moa

This giant bird is a relative of the ostriches that we know and see around. However, the moas were much larger than their descendants, so that they reached 2 meters in height! They were found until a past considered "recent", since they were seen until 1800. After that, they probably already became extinct.

Steller's sea cow

You are probably already familiar with the manatee, but you certainly have never heard of a sea cow. These “small” animals weighed around ten tons and could measure up to 9 meters in length. Furthermore, the name “Steller” refers to its discoverer, the adventurer George Steller who found the bones in Alaska in 1741.

Glyptodon, an armadillo the size of a car

Finally, we have this animal that, we even located a version of it today, but very reduced in size. That's because 10,000 years ago, planet Earth was home to a 2-tonne armadillo that was the size of a small car. These exotic animals inhabited the lands of South America and had great dark-seeing abilities.