File:Castoroides ohioensis (fossil giant beaver) (Pleistocene; North America) 4.jpg

English: Castoroides ohioensis Foster, 1838 - fossil giant beaver from the Pleistocene of North America. (public display, Sternberg Museum of Natural History, Hays, Kansas, USA)

From museum signage: "Like many other animals from the Ice Age, the giant beaver is known for its great size. This beaver was the largest rodent that ever lived, reaching 6 feet long and over 400 pounds (this is the size of a modern black bear!). This species is a distant relative of the modern form, but both species lived together during the Ice Age. However, the giant beaver probably did not build dams. It is very likely that early people in North America hunted this giant, but no direct evidence has yet been found."

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"Beavers evolved in North America during the Eocene (50 million years ago) and later spread to Asia and Europe. The modern beaver in North America, Castor canadensis, averages 40 pounds and is less than 4 feet in length. yet these animals are skilled at changing their environment, constructing dams to pool water around their lodges.

The giant Pleistocene beaver, Castoroides, averaged 200 pounds and 6 feet in length, with some reaching 8 feet. They were perhaps even more adapted to aquatic habitats than the modern beaver. If these giant beavers were engineers like their living relatives, they would have built huge lodges."

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Classification: Animalia, Chordata, Vertebrata, Mammalia, Rodentia, Castoridae

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See info. at:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castoroides