Giant beaver: 2 meter rodents lived in America, terrifying Indians

According to the legend of the North American Indians, huge beavers once lived on the continent. Giant rodents, the size of which exceeded the height of a man, kept the Pokumtuk Indians at bay and, when they were hungry, even attacked people. Today, such stories cause only a smile, but 10,000 years ago, people who lived in North America were not laughing, because there really were huge beavers up to 2 meters tall.

The remains of an extinct species of beavers that lived in the Pleistocene in the United States were first found in 1837 in Ohio peat bogs. The Pleistocene species was named Castoroides ohioensis and assigned to the genus of giant beavers in the beaver family. All representatives of this genus are currently extinct animals. According to the reconstruction carried out on the basis of skeleton bones, the size of the beaver giant reached 2.7 meters, taking into account the tail, and its weight reached 125 kilograms.

At the time of the settlement of the American continent, which occurred about 15-20 thousand years ago, other representatives of megafauna lived on its expanses: mammoths, huge ungulates and predators. Therefore, two-meter beavers are fully consistent with the surrounding reality. The remains of these animals were found in the Midwestern United States (Great Plains), Alaska and the Great Lakes region. Researchers suggest that these beavers lived in most of North America, where in the past era there were many lakes and swamps.

In addition to their outstanding size, North American beavers had several other differences from modern species. The tail of the Pleistocene beavers was shorter and narrower, and their teeth were not so sharp. According to paleontologists, this beaver fed on grassy aquatic vegetation and was completely harmless.