The past is packed with monsters! Behemoths
by the dozen!
Let's meet these fossils (and their less colossal
modern cousins)
The capybara's now the largest rodent on the
planet
But Earth once housed a mighty mouse ten times
more titanic
With twelve inch long incisors - J. monesi
wins the prize
It truly was a rodent of a most unusual size
You think this hog is homely? Well you better
brace yourself!
Cause here's a hippo relative they call the
pig from hell
As burly as a big bad wolf, with emphasis
on big
The Daeodon had all the strength of thirty
little pigs
The wombat is Australian. It has a rock-hard
rear
In combat with its ancient kin it wouldn't
win, I fear
Both wonders from down under raised their
young inside of pouches
But only one marsupial is bigger than most
couches.
Behold the crafty crocodile complete with
toothy grin
Now see a Sarcosuchus smile — five feet
from cheek to chin
And speaking of dentition this big shark's
name means big teeth
So it's "now extinct" condition should be
a huge relief
If sloth's a sin then someone hurry up and
call a priest
Cause here's a Megatherium - four tons of
sloth, at least.
With jumbo tongue, colossal claws, and tail braced on the ground
It grazed for leaves high in the trees where modern sloths are found
The rhino you and I know weighs at least a couple tons
But if you dare — compare a Paraceratherium
The largest vegetarian you'd ever care to see
It was hornless and quite harmless ... unless you were a tree
And that's just the beginning. There's more
— I could go on!
Stupendous Stupendemys! Don't forget Procoptodon!
The armoured Doedicorus! Meganeura's foot long wings!
The plus sized penguin from Peru they call the Water King!
But there's one beast that bests them all,
in fact it breaks the scale:
Balaenoptera musculus. It's common name? Blue whale!
Four hundred thousand pounds - the largest creature known to science
And so today we still can say we share the earth with giants
