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1.
The dodo was in the duck family.
It actually belonged to the family Columbidae, otherwise known as pigeons and doves.
2.
Spinosaurus could swim.
This allowed it to hunt aquatic as well as terrestrial prey.
3.
50,000 years ago, the only hominids on Earth were humans and neanderthals.
There were several other species living at that time, including Denisovans and Homo floresiensis, as well as the other great apes (which are also classified as hominids).
4.
There used to exist a bird that could hunt horses.
The bird, Gastornis, grew up to two metres tall and was flightless, though a formidable predator. However, the horses that it fed on were quite small, only about the size of a large dog.
5.
There was once a marine reptile longer than a sperm whale.
The difference isn't huge, but the icthyosaur Shastasaurus could grow as large as 21 metres, while sperm whales max out at 20.7
6.
No animal has ever had five eyes.
The Cambrian animal Opabinia had five eyes, as well as a proboscis and a backwards-facing mouth under the head. Some modern spiders of the family Caponiidae can also have five eyes.
7.
Animals known as terminator pigs once existed.
Prehistoric pig-like mammals called Entelodonts are sometimes referred to as terminator or hell pigs. They could stand up to 2.1 metres at the shoulder and were ferocious predators, though they also ate vegetation. .
8.
The mammoth Mammuthus creticus was still about five times larger than the giant rodent Josephoartigasia monesi.
Mammuthus creticus is also known as the Cretan dwarf mammoth. It had a shoulder height of about one metre and wasn't that much longer. On the other hand, Josephoartigasia monesi is the largest rodent to have ever lived, at 1.5 metres tall and 3 metres long.
9.
The oldest known primate predates the oldest known bat by five million years.
They date from around the same time, 55 million years ago.
10.
The first permanently terrestrial animal was a scorpion.
It was a millipede, Pneumodesmus newmani.
11.
Excluding tusks, the largest teeth to ever exist belonged to a whale.
The whale in question, Livyatan melvillei, a hyper-predatory prehistoric sperm whale.
12.
Due to their size and weight, you could easily outrun any species of short-faced bear.
Despite the giant short-faced bear being the largest bear to ever exist (1.8 metres tall when on all fours), the species of this genus could possibly run at up to 40mph, even faster than modern bears: this was due to their long legs.
13.
No dinosaurs gave birth to live young, they all laid eggs.
That is, as far as we know. However, the fossil of one reptile belonging to the group Protorosauria, called Dinocephalosaurus, has been found with a fetus inside its womb, suggesting that it may have given birth to live young.
14.
The dominant animals on Earth during the Permian period (just before the Triassic) were closely related to mammals.
These animals were all part of the group known as Synapsida, which includes mammals, though they evolved later in the late Triassic.
15.
The thylacine was the last mammal to go extinct.
The last one died in 1936. However, several mammal species have gone extinct since then, the most recent being the Bramble Cay melomys, which became extinct in 2016.