#extinctmammals

Work in progress underpainting for Thylacosmilus atrox. Roughly 9 to 3 million years ago in what would eventually become known as Argentina, a predator stalks the lightly forested outcropping of an ancient Savannah. Roughly the size of a modern day jaguar the animal is cat-like, having many traits in common with a large cat that would come into power later in North and South America called Smilodon fatalis, despite this it is not in fact a member of the cat family; instead it belongs to a now extinct group called Sparassodonta, this group was in fact much more closely related to modern marsupials than any of the placental mammals it shared a likeness with.

Thylacosmilus would have been around 4.9 feet in length with a densely muscled frame, weighing in at around 330 pounds. Like Smilodon it possessed large, saber-like canines but it's likely these teeth were slightly more specialized in their function. Unlike other saber-toothed animals (nimravids, gorgonopsids, etc) their teeth were more triangular in shape when looked at in cross-sections, their roots would also grow larger and further back into the skull as they aged. On top of this the specialization of these teeth seemed to eliminate the need for functioning incisors (the teeth between your canines).

Work in progress underpainting for Mammuthus primigenius, the Woolly Mammoth. During the Pleistocene and into the early Holocene, there were many members of the Elephantidae family that roamed the world, with many now extinct species wandering the northern reaches of Europe, Asia, and North America, their only living relatives now dwelling in the warm climates of Asia and Africa. Of the extinct genera, the Mammoths were among the most resilient and widespread, with a lineage going as far back as 5 million years   and some species continuing until only around 4,000 years ago.

The Woolly Mammoth itself was encountered frequently by early humans and as such their remains were well known in Asia before they came to be known by Europeans in the 1700s, with famed french naturalist and zoologist, George Cuvier correctly identifying it as an extinct species related to modern day elephants in 1796.

Much is known about these animals, as numerous frozen carcasses with flesh, hair, even blood, and stomach contents all being found across Siberia and Alaska. There is also documentation from early humans in the form of cave paintings. We have even recovered DNA, allowing us to map their lineage in relation to their living elephant relatives.

Woolly Mammoths were about the same size as African elephants, measuring about 8.9 to 11.2 feet high at the shoulder and weighing around 6.6 tons for the males, with the females reaching 8.5 to 9.5 feet high and weighing around 4.4 tons.

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Siberian Elasmotherium (Elasmotherium sibiricum). Of the animals of the Quaternary period, this is the most unusual and largest rhinoceros of the late Pleistocene, which survived almost to the Holocene. Length up to 5 m, height up to 2.5 m, weight up to 5 t. Its range extended to Southern Siberia, Kazakhstan, the Lower and Middle Volga region, the North Caucasus, the southern strip of Eastern Europe and partially Western Europe (2.5 million - 50 thousand years ago).