megafauna

[meg-uh-faw-nuh]

noun

1. Zoology.,  large or giant animals, especially of a given area. Because megafauna tend to have long lives and slow population growth and recovery rates, many such species, as elephants and whales, are particularly vulnerable to overexploitation by humans.

2. Ecology.,  animals of a given area that can be seen with the unaided eye.

3. Classical Mythology.,  large or giant mythical creatures, often resembling a familiar animal, as a hellhound, or a composite of different animals, as a griffin.

megafauna

/ ˈmɛɡəˌfɔːnə /

noun

1. the component of the fauna of a region or period that comprises the larger terrestrial animals

megafauna

1. Large or relatively large animals of a particular place or time period. Saber-toothed tigers and mastodons belong to the extinct megafauna of the Oligocene and Pleistocene Epochs.

Word History and Origins

Origin of megafauna¹

First recorded in 1925–30; mega- + fauna

Example Sentences

It had evolved to specialize in hunting megafauna — oversized, cold-tolerant, plant-eating mammals like mammoths and giant sloths and saber-toothed tigers.

Read more on Salon

While the more flexible grey wolf is still around today, its large, dire cousin died out some 12,900 years ago, probably as a result of mass extinctions of the megafauna to which it was so well adapted.

Read more on Salon

"What's striking to me is that this confirms a lot of data from other sites. For example, the animal parts left at Clovis sites are dominated by megafauna, and the projectile points are large, affixed to darts, which were efficient distance weapons," said co-lead author Ben Potter, an archaeology professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Read more on Science Daily

"If the climate is changing in a way that reduces the suitable habitat for some of these megafauna, then it makes them potentially more susceptible to human predation. These people were very effective hunters," said Potter.

Read more on Science Daily

"You had the combination of a highly sophisticated hunting culture -- with skills honed over 10,000 years in Eurasia -- meeting naïve populations of megafauna under environmental stress," said Chatters.

Read more on Science Daily