Ancient, Giant Beavers Didn't Have a Taste for Wood

Oct. 23, 2009 -- Behemoth beavers that lived in North America during the last ice age ate little if any material from trees, a new analysis suggests.

The extinct giant beaver, Castoroides ohioensis, was just one species of large animals, or megafauna, stalking the North American landscape near the end of the last ice age. Fossils indicate that the creature was about twice the size of its modern-day cousin and therefore weighed between 60 and 100 kilograms, says Catherine Yansa, a paleoecologist at Michigan State University in East Lansing.

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Different Diet
Behemoth beavers that once roamed North America ate more like little hippos than their modern cousins. Castoroides ohioensis was just one species of large animals stalking the North American landscape near the end of the last ice age.

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New York: Prehistoric Giant Beaver video:

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These are amazing creatures, I had no idea they were so big in pre-historic times, I used to see Beavers all the time when I was growing up in the thumb area of Michigan.

reply to post by Aquarius1


S & F

I've read someplace that during the last ice age especially here in North America that many of the fauna of the period had a diet supplemented by a semi carnivorous diet.

Some have suggested this may have been the case with the North American mastodon and Giant Sloth.

reply to post by Aquarius1


Thanks for the education, I had no idea. I wonder what caused the change in their diet, unless it was complete lack of the food they were consuming at the time.

Funny how nature takes care of it's own sometimes.

reply to post by tribewilder


What is also interesting, at least to me is that this is in America, so much ancient information comes from other parts of the World and am always excited when it's in my own back yard so to speak.

It's amazing what probably roamed the earth hundreds of thousands of years ago. But from what I gathered from the video no one said the Beavers didn't eat trees. They said they dont know. THere is no way to tell for sure what diet ancient creatures ate. That's silly. But it's interesting how everything was so much bigger back when the planet was younger.