{"id":35888,"date":"2024-02-01T12:18:42","date_gmt":"2024-02-01T11:18:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/c20db6ea-5121-49b2-8acc-bf5f5b843472"},"modified":"2024-02-01T13:36:02","modified_gmt":"2024-02-01T12:36:02","slug":"10-ice-age-animals-meet-the-extraordinary-beasts-that-thrived-when-the-world-was-frozen","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/rss_feed\/10-ice-age-animals-meet-the-extraordinary-beasts-that-thrived-when-the-world-was-frozen\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Ice Age animals: meet the extraordinary beasts that thrived when the world was frozen"},"content":{"rendered":"

The temperatures were low, but the animals were immense! Our expert guide examines some of the truly massive animals that dominated Ice age landscapes <\/p>

By Leoma Williams\n <\/p>

Published: Thursday, 01 February 2024 at 11:18 AM<\/p>

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What we know as the Ice Age, the last long period during which global temperatures dropped dramatically and the polar ice expanded to cover much of the earth, is more properly called the Last Glacial Period (as there have been multiple ice ages).<\/strong><\/p>

It started around 115,000 years ago and lasted for over 100,000 years. In that time many animal lineages rose and fell. In particular, it is known that many large mammal species went extinct during the transition from the Ice Age to the present interglacial period (from around 50,000 to 5,000 years ago).<\/p>

These extinctions are thought to have occurred due to a combination of a quickly changing climate, changing vegetation and increases in human hunting. These megafauna <\/em>included some truly huge and charismatic animals, from the iconic woolly mammoth to huge cave bears, to giant sloths standing nearly 12 feet tall! In this list you will find out about some extraordinary (now extinct) animals that lived during the age of ice and snow.<\/p>

10 now-extinct animals from the Ice Age<\/h2>

1. Neanderthals<\/h3>