the.com/megafauna

Animals so big evolution basically gave up on predators eating them.

means Megafauna refers to the large or giant animals of an ecosystem or era, typically defined as species weighing over roughly 45 kilograms (100 pounds).

from Built from Greek 'mega' (great, large) and Latin 'fauna', the Roman goddess of animals and nature whose name became the general word for animal life. The term rose in 19th-century science to describe the giant Ice Age creatures — mammoths, giant sloths, saber-toothed cats — whose bones kept turning up too big to ignore.

technical threshold
usually means over 44 kilograms adult weight
ice age casualties
most went extinct within 10000 years of humans arriving
surviving examples
elephants, giraffes, whales still roam today
ecosystem engineers
their dung and grazing shaped entire landscapes
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