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About this Episode
If you think scaling the himalayas is crazy now, just wait until you hear how it used to be...
Transcript
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We humans, over the years, have gotten pretty good at building things.
And this includes, well, buildings.
And as of today, there are over 7,000 skyscrapers scattered all across the globe, with the tallest
being the Burj Khalifa Dubai, which stands 830 meters, or 2,700 feet tall.
Impressive, surely.
But none of these skyscrapers hold to candle to the tallest natural made structures, which
would be mountains.
And of all the mountain ranges, the tallest, and an arguably the most famous, is of course
the Himalayas, which is found in Asia, and has a profound impact on the region due to
its massive structure, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan
Plateau, and stretching across six different countries, those being Nepal, India, China,
Bhutan, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.
And across its range, more than 100 of its mountains are above 7,000 km, or 23,600
feet tall, which is obviously giant.
The tallest is just one mountain, and that's Mount Everest, which stands nearly 5.5 miles
or 8.8 km tall, dwarfing mankind's tallest building by a magnitude of 10.
And given its altitudes, surroundings, and size, I'm sure if you picture Mount Everest,
or the Himalayas in general, you'd think of a lot of rock, ice, and snow.
So in other words, probably not much life.
However, while much of the mountain range is truly unkind to life, including us, the Himalayas
is ultimately a trove for nature.
And if you trek through it, you might encounter some black bears, red pandas, languars,
tarz, musk deer, gorals, brown bears, and snow leopards, if you somehow manage to break
through their nifty camouflage.
And yet I hate to say it, but I think the Himalayas now is just a fraction of what it once
was.
As once upon a time, the Himalayas wasn't just filled with much more life in different
environments, but it was literally just about the strangest place in the entire planet,
being home to animals you would have never pictured together.
And while you could have found interesting life throughout most of the Himalayas, there
is one place in which things were at peak weirdness you could say, and it all went down
an location known as the Sivila Hills.
This region of the Himalayas is really a large mountain range that sets on the outer portion,
and it stretches out for 2,400 kilometers or 1,500 miles, making it to more than three
times longer than England.
And for nearly 200 years, this place has been well known for producing some amazing
finds that range across great deal of various prehistoric animals.
And not only did it range in discoveries, but the time these creatures lived too.
Because as it so turns out, the Sivila Hills doesn't just represent one window into the
past Himalayas, but rather, multiple, with some parts of a dating back all the way to
18 million years ago, while other portions, such as the youngest areas, are just 600,000
years old, which is obviously quite the range, no pun intended.
And because of it, there's no surprise that not all of the animals found in the Sivila
Hills actually lived together.
However, like every ecosystem, there was a distinct moment when things were as crazy as they
ever got.
And I'd argue that here, it occurred during late Myocene, a time when life made life
pretty hard.
This was a time of great change for the world, and this included the Himalayas.
For a good amount of time, you would have found the Himalayas to be very different from
the present, in that a large portion of it was warmer and more humid, which led to an
abundance of floodplains and forests within the area in surroundings.
And a creation of these environments led to, well, a lot of animals that benefited from
such ecosystems, and swiftly the Himalayas turned to a paradise for animals within these
certain niches.
And so, this is pretty cool, but here's the thing, when you have a lot of the same stuff,
you can run into very similar animals, meaning a lot of the same old same old.
As in other words, if you have one niche everywhere, you generally don't see much diversity.
But not to worry though, because something that always switches things up is time, and
after enough of it, things became different.
Especially in the Himalayas, which eventually started to undergo geological changes, with
large sections of it experiencing uplift and exclamation, which wound up messing up the
weather system that had been in place.
And of all the changes it brought, one of the most detrimental was the impact it had on
the monsoons in Asia, which totally shifted its functionalities thanks to the new shape
the Himalayas took on.
In this in time, led to the environments drastically going from humid to more dry, leading
to a shift from thick jungles and floodplains to more savanna and grassy-like regions.
When it was in this period of transition, where some thick brush still remained, and yet
new grasslands were spring forth, that things really started to go from interesting to very
strange.
As it allowed for new animals to enter, resulting in some very odd sites that would make any
trip here unforgettable.
Although sometimes bizarre can still mean familiar, and I say this, as one of the first faces
you might have come across, was one of us.
Or rather, a great ape.
This is a pithicus.
This was one of Himalayas' oldest residents during the late Myocene, and was even fairly
old for a great ape, first appearing some 12.5 million years ago.
And it's actually believed that one of the species that made up this genus may have
been the direct ancestor to modern-day orangutans.
Although if you met one of these critters, if you can even call them that, you would be
more likely to confuse them for an oversized chimpanzee than in the orangutan.
As most of his traits were chimp-like, albeit on a larger scale, with a still pithicus
specimens typically measuring 1.5 meters or 5 feet tall, so similar to the body stature
of a fully grown orangutan.
Yet, one trait that did hint at its ancestry was its face, which resembled that of its
future descendants.
In contrast to its face, though, it did live a bit differently than the big O's.
As the shape of its wrists and the presence of large, well-developed canines and heavy
molars, suggest that it actually spent quite a bit of its life not just in trees, but
on the ground, too, where it would have feasted on tough foods such as seeds or savanna grasses.
Although, despite its larger size, any excursion onto the ground by this creature, as well as
any expedition by a time traveler, would it need to be done so with great caution?
Seeing that you might have run into one of the top predator of the Himalayas as well,
which was perhaps surprisingly not a type of Himalayan brown bear or snow-lovered.
And in fact, it wasn't even a kind of irsid or feline, rather being of a varied of
all things.
A family to which creatures like civets, bintarongs, gennets, and oeons belong to.
So animals that you likely have never even heard of before, and I doubt you have heard
of this guy either, the Vishnu Iktis.
In this case, though, names don't really matter, because you would absolutely not have cared
if one of these animals were hunting even the prehistoric Himalayas.
On paper, these guys were most alike to the extant civets, being lean, cat-like creatures
that are mostly not colonel, have wide diets, and wickedly sharp teeth.
Typically, civets are very small, but the Vishnu Iktis, however, not so much.
As many of its species reaching the sizes of modern day wolves, and this, my friends,
wasn't even on the higher end.
As the largest species of this genus, likely grew to be almost 11 feet or 3.4 meters long,
tail included, while weighing 300 kilos or 660 pounds, so a lot larger than your average
line or even Siberian tiger.
And thus, this wasn't exactly something you'd want to encounter at night, or during the
day, especially seeing the die to the Vishnu Iktis was probably quite generalistic, with
it being an omnivore, and both hunting and scavenging animals and varying sizes, from small
little things, all the way up to tortoise-sized.
Now after I just said that, you may be thinking, tortoise-sized, silly extinct zoo, tortoises
aren't big?
Well, tell that to Jonathan, the oldest tortoise on earth, and owner of an absolute unit of
a shell.
And here's the thing though, I am not even referring to this giant succinct tortoise, rather
the megalochelis, meaning the great turtle.
But really this wasn't a turtle, rather obviously, a tortoise.
And as far as we know, it was the largest to have ever lived, so non-exactly the kind
of animal you'd expect to find around the Himalayas.
And still, this is where this one of a kind of creature, called home, throughout the
myocene.
And honestly, you might have been more likely to confuse one of them for a massive glip-dot
instead of a testadime.
Seeing that the shell, alone on these giants, was about 2 meters or 6 foot 7 inches long,
while likely it was still taller than you did.
And because of its massive shell, and stocky body, the megalochelis would have weighed
a lot, a lot.
Anywhere from one ton, all the way up to 4 tons, which would put it on par with their
old dinosaurs, such as the lower weight estimates seen in the main cow's source.
Though I will say that these 4 ton estimates are often considered hopeful at best, with the
one ton estimate being a bit more reasonable.
But regardless, it still begs the question, what exactly does a one ton plus tortoise do
in Himalayas?
And the answer to that is, well, pretty much exactly what a normal tortoise does, but
on a much bigger scale.
As it was likely a vegetarian, and going off a moderate tortoises, would have needed
to consume over half a ton of plant material, and get this.
That's every year.
So actually pretty darn efficient from a size perspective.
And like their kin, they could probably go long-stints without eating, a big bonus, no
doubt.
Though one area they did differ was how they ate, as opposed to the grazing tactic,
see many times in extent, the megalochelis, thanks to its imposing size and height, might
have eaten from leaves above the ground.
In a fashion that would be somewhat slimmer to that of giraffe.
Right?
And speaking of giraffes, it turns out that not only were the Himalayas great for tortoises
during the meocene, but also these tall boys, who massively benefited from the mix of trees
and open grasslands, offering them an abundance of food in place to roam, which in turn result
in the group becoming bigger than ever before, which eventually led to the behemoth known
as the syphotherium, the largest giraffe, or rather giraffe, to have ever existed.
Oh, and uh, it also had horns.
Yep, horns that were, by the way, a bit like those on a moose, which is why at first
it was often restored as a giant moose-like creature instead of a giraffe.
But we now know that's incorrect.
Instead, the syphotherium would have looked like a stout, heavily built giraffe, with obviously
some antlers on top of its head, which were then also accompanied by two prong-like structures
that were situated right above the eye.
In each of these mammals a maturity would have been around 3 meters or 10 feet tall.
So not necessarily as tall as modern day giraffes, but the true magic was not from their
height, but from their weight.
As its robust bones and muscular build resulted in syphotheriums coming in at possibly 1,360 kilos
or 3,000 pounds, so larger than the heaviest giraffe.
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And typically these weight estimates don't even account for the horns, so who knows
how big these guys truly were.
Regardless though, no matter the exact weight, they were clearly in life quite big for
giraffes, and likely use their size to their advantage, for both grazing and browsing
purposes, making the best of both worlds in the Himalayas during the Mayasine.
And in regards to their strange antlers, it's presumably might have been used like those
of the moose, despite the limited relation, with them possibly being used for competition
over mates, fights over resources, and then defense against predators, especially since
the syphotherium possessed one heck of an egg that was roped in giant muscles that allowed
it to maneuver its ridiculously sized skull with ease and power.
So I think I'd rather take some nice photos of this guy from afar, rather than getting
up close and personal with it, and uh, risk getting frame-mogged.
And I share similar feelings with another megafauna that roamed these lands, a probocidian,
the view order to which modern day elephants belongs to.
And honestly, I should say probocidians, as in plurally, as the syphonic hills were very
popular amongst this group during the Mayasine.
And thus far, we know of at least five different genera that coexisted altogether back then,
including the Protanicus, Coerra Lophadon, Gumpotherium, Prodenaetherium, and the Stegolophadon.
All these guys were big on grazing and browsing, plus also being big on a, well, scale.
As each of them weighed multiple tons, with the largest of the bunch possibly being the
Gumpotherium, which could push scales close to seven tons, and also have the honest
set of tests among the bunch too, seeing that it had four, including two found on the
bottom of the jaw which might have aided in digging and foraging.
So definitely not ball.
And across the five different genera, you would have found an array of wacky tusks that
can also no doubt dish out a lot of damage if need be, which when combined with their
sheer size, could need to result in you being squished like a bug.
And so clearly, this place is a hot spot for this order.
As like I said, at least five different genera lived here, with a possible number of coexisting
kin being even higher than that.
As fossils belong to the Stegodon, and maybe even the earliest of elephants, aka one of
the two extent elephants, genera, have been uncovered here as well.
And what's a bit crazy about this is that just one purpose city in genus is known to
heavily impact an ecosystem, with them being known as something called ecosystem engineers.
So just imagine having multiple in one single spot.
And this surely would have impacted other life, not only indirectly, but also directly
as well.
Seeing these tusks guys can sometimes be a bit moody, and frankly if I had a pick, then
probably rather try my luck with a syphotherium.
So clearly, there was a lot of excitement going around here, and yet we have only scratched
the tip of the surface, as a lot more animals call this place home, including some non-amalians.
And in typical myocene Himalayan fashion, this included something else, which you might
not expect to find in the Himalayan's, crocodilians.
Specifically, in the rivers that form from the waters that ran down the mountains, you
would have found certain crocs residing within, with a higher attempts at the time lying
for larger reptiles living in higher altitudes, including crocodiles, paleoindicus.
This is the action extinct species of the still living genus crocodiles, and might have
even been the ancestor to the Mugger crocodile, a species that inhabits the Indian subcontinent
and is a rather large croc, in some cases cracking 18 feet or 5.5 meters, and has been
known to kill people.
And the paleoindicus was likely even larger, being more similar in stature to saltwater
crocs, which is, in case you didn't know, the largest reptile in her today, at least
from a waste standpoint.
And in this size, could have no doubt taken down a fair chunk of animals that ventured close
to the waters, with powerful jaws, size, and first death rolls.
So this guy is, obviously, bad news, and we still aren't the endless potential predators
that could have been a new day, and life.
Since in recent years, new fossils have been found on Earth, showing us that the group
of predators here was stronger than previously thought.
And this is included the discovery of multiple hyenas, including the leptina and thalacictus,
two medium sized animals that are both hunters, and also likely the area's garbage disposal,
at least when it came to bones, as they might have displayed the same bone-munching tendency
that we see today in certain hyenas.
And on the top of that, the paracucuta lived amongst them as well, which was another
of their kind that was larger than the two, being similar in size to a very large jaguar.
But a bit less agile, as it traded that in for a much more powerful jaw, making it a
formidable hunter.
And then in congruency with today, there's also been a discovery of filets, too.
And for the most part, these creatures have been a name species, which range from small
to large, with the more specific details often going unknown.
However, one feel that we have been able to identify, and name, is the still mysterious,
Vina-Yakia nocturna.
This was indeed a feelet, and in some ways, cat-like, yet it sure wasn't like no kitty of today.
As it belonged to a now extinct subfamily, known as the pro-alior ring, which on average
were small to medium sized.
But Vina-Yakia was a bit of a big bugger, with the dose reaching a size that was somewhere
between that of a leopard and Siberian tiger, so definitely capable of taking human sized
prey down.
And really, you might have not even had a chance to fight back, seeing that you likely would
have never seen it coming.
As base of its name, you might have been able to guess that it was likely an nocturnal.
To be exact, based upon certain school morphologies, including large orbital cavities, we think
it was a nighttime hunter, meaning one second you're sleeping, and the next up, you're
still sleeping, but only this time it's forever.
But with this all said, not everything here wanted to eat you, trample you, or gory you.
As there were more, I guess you could say, normal residents, too.
And actually, a fair amount of them, with one excavation alone, you'll be multiple
different general, such as Gazella, Elastos Saras, Dorsotherium, Listeriodon, Draftocarrix,
Drafta, and Merikopotamus, which were all on the bigger side, but less likely to kill
you.
And so evidently, this place was spilling forth of life, and I haven't even addressed the
smaller critters in the area either, as at least 16 species of rodents called myocene
Himalaya, home, too.
Additionally, you also have a fair amount of slithery friends in the lower Himalayas, and
while navigating this ecosystem, you'd have to be careful to avoid running at the pythons,
wartsnakes, goo-eaters, and highly venomous crates.
And again, this list is just scratching the surface.
And all in all, the Sivila kills were presented a very lively ecosystem, with, let's just say,
some very lively residents.
However, if you truly wanted to see it in all of its glory, you'd have had a hurry, so
to speak.
Because peak Himalayas didn't last for a very long time, as the transition from forest
to grassland was, on the grand scale, things rather quick.
And it resulted in high-fonal turnover.
So by the time the myocene ended, the place is already vastly different, going into the
plyoplycene area.
For example, while the giant tortoise and the forehorn giraffe remained, along with some
other recognizable faces, others like our relative, the Sivapificus, had since been wiped
away, along with the number of herbicidians, hyunids, philids, and the giant piverids who
had stocked the lands.
But on the flip side, the Himalayas did receive some new animals as well, including those
that are fascinating in their own right.
The most notable amongst them was arguably the giant sabertoothed cats.
As it was in this era, the Megantaryon first appeared.
Now, this cat was found in various places on Earth, yet it was here where they grew to
the largest sizes, with the biggest specimens being comparable to the largest lioness has
ever recorded.
Yet, here's the thing, they weren't just as big as them, but also far more robust, as
these guys had seriously sturdy and thick bones, indicating an insane ability for them to
grapple with large megafauna, while utilizing their claws to get iron-like grips before
then administering fatal damage through the main showstopper, and that was of course
their supersized specialized canines.
Each of them were as long as blades, and it had extremely sharpened points that presumably
allowed them to softly slide into the warm throat to their prey, causing death to come
alarmingly fast.
But what wasn't as fast as that was them eating their prey, and this cat might have been
a leisure eater, so to speak.
Holling corpses off to a safe place were then joy and savor every bite, using its
much smaller kernassials to bite pieces off, which obviously doesn't sound too pleasant
to be on the receiving end of this.
And though you and me don't have to worry about a megonterion, which is to ambushing
us while hiking, our ancestors kind of did.
As in recent years, artifacts and bones belonging to humans have been identified in the area.
But when I say humans, I don't mean homosapian, but rather our older ancestor, the Homoaractus,
which migrated from African to Asia around 2 million years ago or so.
Now, I'm quite certain that the auto-rectus here or there probably ended up as cat food.
Yet, just like our own history of destruction, the arrival of the erectus actually spelled
the more bad news and good for the predators and habitats of the civil like hills.
Armed with the hand axes, spears, complex society, and uh, a good thinker, these guys
were unsurprisingly widely successful, despite them being physically like us, in other words,
quite feeble.
Whether reconstructed dimensions, being about 141 cm, or 4 x 8 inches, to 167 cm, or
5 x 6 inches tall.
And yet, despite being on the smaller side, they thrived, and we know this is the abundance
of artifacts present, as well as the retrieval of various animal bones, which are the these
guys have been very capable hunters in the ecosystem, taking it out megafauna after megafauna
and butchering them for their ample meat.
And actually, they might have been a tad bit too successful, as some of the more iconic
animals' extinction have been linked to them, such as the megalochelus.
And even the landscape likely was heavily altered by them, considering that there was strong
evidence that Homoaractus eventually learned to control fire.
And so this certainly did not help the ecosystem of the late Mayasin Himalayan, which was also
confounded by the fact that the ice age was slowly ramping up, making world temperatures
colder and is still in the rate of environmental change in the Himalayan and surrounding areas,
causing it to become drier and colder, leading to a further expansion in grasslands that
voted well for some, and not so well for many others, with much of the megafauna going
extinct.
But still some survived.
But then when Homoas sapiens eventually entered, game over, at least for most of what was.
However, some animals did prevail, and actually this included a pretty surprising one, a
herbicidian known as the elephant.
As even today, Asian elephants call the foothills of Himalayas home, living at altitudes
as high as 3,000 meters, or nearly 10,000 feet.
And then they've also been joined, of course, by the newest faces in the Himalayas, such
as the snow leopard, Himalayan brown bear, etc. etc.
That altogether have created the Himalayas we know of today.
And perhaps its current state is for the best, as well giant tortoises and mega giraffes
are cool and all.
I personally am glad, at least, that we no longer have to deal with giant saber tooth
cats, or revered the size of tigers, that are certainly large enough to eat us.
Thanks for watching, and until next time, on Extinc Siu.
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