Land of Giants

When dinosaurs dominated the earth,

mammals were small, furry animals, hiding in
the forests. After the disappearance of the
dinosaurs, these creatures evolved into modern
mammals.

 But that isnt the whole story. Between the

time of the dinosaurs and our own history,
there was another time ...

A time world forgot

1. Fossils found in Germany show the
existence of mammals about 45 million years
ago. One animal was an early relation of the
horse but only 50 cm tall. Ambulocetus was
even more amazing;
It was a kind of small whale with legs, which
probably walked and swam like a crocodile.

Ambulocetus

 2. In this period, birds were much bigger and

more dominant than mammals. They probably
developed from dinosaurs. Archaeologists
Have found evidence of huge birds like the
gastornis. They were up to 3 metres tall and
couldnt fly. They were meat-eaters- and there
were lots of small mammals on the menu!

 3. When the Earths climate got a lot colder,

these giant birds died out and mammals took
control but theres a big difference between
these mammals and the ones we know today.
The Earth 30 million years ago, was a land of
giant mammals such as a 9-metre-long
rhinoceros and a 5-metre-long wolf.

 4. The reason for the extinction of these giant

mammals is a mystery, but some were alive
until quite recently. For example, we know
early humans hunted mammoths and sabretoothed tigers. And in the 1830s, Charles
Darwin found the bones of a giant sloth in
Chile which lived 10,000 years ago. It was the
size of an elephant and looked like a huge
hamster!
Is this the complete story of the evolution of
life on Earth?

sabre-toothed tigers

mammoths

giant
sloth

 5. Probably not. We are discovering new

information all the time. In 2005, Chinese
scientists reported the discovery of a fossil of
great importance. This unknown mammal
lived about 130 million years ago and was a
bit bigger than a car. Interestingly, it had the
bones of a small dinosaur in its stomach. A
dinosaur-eating mammal? What will we
discover next?!

Key Words: Animals (2)

Crocodile- krokodil
dinosaur- dinosaurus
Elephant- slon
Giant sloth- lijeni div
Hamster- hrak
Horse- konj
Lizard- guter

Key Words: Animals (2)

Mammoth- mamut
Rhinoceros- nosorog
Sabre-toothed tiger- nazubljeni tigar
Whale- kit
Wolf- vuk