Ancient hypercarnivores such as dire wolves, cave hyenas, and saber-toothed cats – whose diets consisted of 80% meat – were up to twice the size of the wolves, spotted hyenas, and lions we have today. And according to new findings published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, packs of them used to keep even the most humongous of Pleistocene megaherbivores in check. These hunters had a much bigger impact on the ecosystem than we thought: Killing just 17% of juvenile megaherbivores a year would be enough to halt...
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