Biota - Lifeforms

Many genera and species of land mammals, marine microfossils, insects, and shellfish still exist today that are related to or identical to those that did during the Pleistocene. However, numerous Pleistocene fossils exhibit notable variations. Saber-toothed cats, woolly mammoths, and cave bears, for instance, which are well-known from museum exhibits and popular literature, are now extinct. Bison, horses, antelopes, and their predators found some environmental changes, such as the spread of dry steppe grasslands, to be beneficial. Some species, like the woolly mammoth and its close contemporary relative the woolly rhinoceros, have thick pelts and are adapted to the chilly tundra. Some species have also evolved to survive in the chilly tundra, like the modern musk ox.


Giantization of land mammals is typically regarded as occurring during the Pleistocene. Although the causes of giantization are not fully understood, some theories include a reaction to colder temperatures, increased predator resistance, and an improved capacity to reach prey hidden in shrubs and under snow. The giant beaver, giant sloth, giant deer, dire wolf, new world giant short-faced bear, and old world cave bear are a few examples of Pleistocene giant mammals. Mastodons and woolly mammoths were roughly the same size as modern elephants today. The enormous canines of the saber-toothed cat are just one example of an animal's extreme body structure. These evolutionary extremes are thought to have resulted from the "arms race" between predator and prey.

Animals that people coexisted with in the Late Pleistocene, such as bison, antelopes, horses, and mammoths, are depicted in vivid cave murals like those at Lascaux in France and in rock paintings in Australia and other places around the globe. Clearly, both large and small game were hunted with a variety of tools. Other tools are understood to be specialized awls or scrapers for sewing skins. Rare discoveries of stone tools embedded in or closely related to the skeletons of mammoths and other animals offer proof of animal hunting. Camps in Siberia have also yielded tent circles fashioned from woolly mammoth jaws and tusks. These might have been prey or prey of prey. For food, tools, and shelter, these hunter-gatherers used animal flesh, bones, skins, muscles, and a variety of plants, just like the recently discovered Stone Age people. It is obvious that these animal resources were necessary for survival, particularly in cold climates.