ExtinctZoo - Strange Extinct Animals Found In The Himalayas

Episode Date: March 10, 2026

If you think scaling the himalayas is crazy now, just wait until you hear how it used to be...

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When you want savings, not surprises. It matters where you stay. Hilton, for the stay. 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 in Dubai, which stands 830 meters or 2,700 feet tall. Impressive, surely. But none of these skyscrapers hold a candle to the tallest natural-made structures, which would be mountains. And of all the mountain ranges, the tallest and in 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 7,200 meters, or 23,600 feet tall, which is obviously giant. But the tallest is just one mountain, and that's Mount Everest, which stands nearly 5.5 miles or 8.8 kilometers tall, dwarfing mankind's tallest building by a magnitude of 10.

And given its altitude, surroundings, and size, I am sure if you picture Mount Everest, or the Himalayas in general, you 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, mars, musk deer, gorols, 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 on 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 in a location known as the Civillic Hills. This region of the Himalayas is really a large mountain range that sits on the outer portion and stretches out for 2,400 kilometers or 1,500 miles, making it more than three

times longer than England. And for nearly 200 years, this place has been well known for producing some amazing finds that ranged across a great deal of various prehistoric animals. And not only did a range in discoveries, but the time these creatures live too, because as it so turns out, the Sivlik hills doesn't just represent one window into the past Himalayas, but rather multiple, with some parts of it 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 Civillic 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 the late Miocene, a time when life made a... 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 and surroundings. And the creation of these environments led to, well, a lot of animals that benefited from

such ecosystems. And swiftly, the Himalayas turned into 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 exhumation, which wound up messing up the weather system that had been in place. And of all the changes it wrought, one of the most detrimental was the impact I had on the monsoons in Asia, which totally shifted its functionalities thanks to the new shape the Himalayas took on. And this in time led 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. And it was in this period of transition, where some thick brush still remained, and yet new grasslands were springing 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 sights, though 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, the Sivaphythicus. This was one of Himalayas' oldest residents during the late Miocene, 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 around. arangetans. 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 an orangutan, as most of his

traits were chimp-like, albeit on a larger scale, with the Sivaphythicus 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 in the presence of large, well-developed canines and heavy molars, suggests 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 savannah grasses. Although, despite its larger size, any excursion onto the ground by this creature,

as well as any expedition by a time traveler, would have needed 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 snowy. leopard and in fact it wasn't even a kind of ursid or feline rather being of a varied of all things a family to which creatures like civets binturongs genets and oyons belong to so animals that you likely have never even heard it before and i doubt you have heard of this guy either the vishnu ectis in this case though names don't really matter because you would absolutely not have cared if one of the 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 nocturnal have wide diets and wickedly sharp teeth. Yeah typically civets are very small. But the Vishnuikdis, 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 that the diet of the Vishnuikdis was probably quite generalistic,

with it being an omnivore and both hunting and scavenging animals of 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 Sicilian tortoise, rather the megalocelus, 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 not 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 Miocene. And honestly, you might have been more likely to confuse one of them for a massive glypidont instead of a testidine, seeing that the shell alone on these giants was about two meters, or 6'7 inches long, while it likely would have stood taller than you did. And because of its massive shell and stocky body, the megaloccalus would have weighed a lot to lot, anywhere from one ton all the way up to four tons, which would put it on par with literal dinosaurs, such as a lower weight estimate seen in the chalosaurus.

Though I will say that these four-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 of modern 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 seen many times in extent genera, the megalocelus thinks of its imposing size and height might have eaten from leaves above the ground, in a fashion that would be somewhat similar to that of a giraffe. Pretty odd, right? Speaking of giraffes, it turns out that not only were the Himalayas great for tortoises during the myocene, but also these tallboys, who massively benefited from the mix of trees and open grasslands, offering them an abundance of food in places to Rome, which in turn resulted in the group becoming bigger than ever before, which eventually led to the behemoth known as the syphithyrium, the largest giraffe, or rather giraffe-fed, 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 syphatherium 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. And each of these mammals in maturity would have been around 3 meters,

were 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 syphitherems coming in impossibly, 1,360 kilos or 3,000 pounds, so larger than the heaviest giraffe. Yamava Resort and Casino at San Manuel is California's number one entertainment destination for today's superstars. Catch the Jonas Brothers return to the Yamava Theater stage on April 30th, the powerful vocals of Demi Lovato on May 17th and the signature Southern Country Rock of Eric Church on July 19th. Tickets on sale now at Yamava Theater.com, only at Yamava Resort and Casino, celebrating its 40th anniversary. You in? Must be 21 to enter.

...ever recorded. 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 Giraffids and likely used their own. their size to their advantage for both grazing and browsing purposes, making the best of both worlds in the Himalayas during the Miocene. And in regards to their strange antlers, it's presumed they 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 Civithereum possessed one heck of a neck 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 the sky from afar, rather than getting up close and personal with it, and risk getting frame-mogged. And I share similar feelings with another megafauna that roamed these lands, a proboscidian, the order to which modern-day elephants belongs to. And honestly, I should say proboscideans, as in plurally, as the Savolic Hills were very popular amongst this group during the Miocene. And thus far, we know of at least five different genera that coexisted altogether back then, including the Protanicus, Coerola Laphidon, Gompetherium, Prodane Ethereum, and the Stegalophon.

All of 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 Gump Ethereum, which could push scales close to seven tons, and also had the honest set of tusks among the bunch too, seeing that it had four, including two found in the bottom of his jaw,

which might have aided in digging and foraging. So definitely an oddball. 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 either result in you being squished like a bug. And so clearly, this place was a hotspot 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 Elephus, aka one of the two-extant elephants, genera, have been uncovered here as well. And what's a bit crazy about this is that just one proboscidian genus is known to heavily impact an ecosystem, with them being known of 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 that these tusks guys can sometimes be a bit moody, and frankly, if I had a pick, I'd probably rather try my luck with this if Ethereum.

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-mammalians. In a typical Miacian-Himalayan-Fashion, this included something else, which you might not expect to find in the Himalayas. crocodilians. Specifically, in the rivers that formed from the waters that ran down the mountains, you would have found certain crocs residing within, with the higher attempts of the time along for larger reptiles living in higher altitudes, including Crocodilus Paleoindicus. This is actually an extinct species of the still-living genus Crocodilus, 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 paleo-indicus was likely even larger, being more similar in stature to saltwater crocks, which is, in case you didn't know, the largest reptile on Earth today, at least from a weight 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 ferocious death rolls. And so this guy is obviously bad news, and we still aren't at the end of the list of potential predators that could have ruined your day and life. Since in recent years, new fossils have been found in Earth, showing us that the group of predators

here was stronger than previously thought. And this has included the discovery of multiple hyenas, including the lept hyena and thaliccestus, two medium-sized animals that were 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 then on top of that, the pericu-cuta lived amongst them as well, which was another of their kind that was larger than the two, being slimmer in size to a very large jaguar, but a bit less agile, as they traded that in for a much more powerful jaw, making it a formidable hunter. And then in congruency with today, there has also been the discovery of phyelids, too. And for the most part, these creatures have been a named species,

which ranged from small to large, with the more specific details, often going unknown. However, one field that we have been able to identify and name is the still mysterious Vinayakia nocturna. This was indeed a phylaid, and in some ways catalike, yet it sure wasn't like no kitty of today, as it belonged to a now extinct subfamily known as the pro-aliereen, which is a now extinct subfamily, on average were small to medium-sized. But Evaniakia 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 size 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 nocturnal. To be exact, based upon certain skull morphologies, including large orbital cavities, we think it was an nighttime hunter, meaning one second you're sleeping, and the next, uh, 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 gore you, as there were more, I guess you could say, normal residents too. It actually a fair amount of them, with one excavation alone, yielding multiple different genera, such as gazella, elastoceros, doris ethereum, lystereidon, giraffeokcharac, giraffe, and mercapodemus, which were all on the bigger side, but less likely to kill you.

And so evidently this place was spilling forth in life. and I haven't even addressed the smaller critters in the area either, as at least 16 species of rodents called Miacian Himalaya home too. Additionally, you also had 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, warts, goateeaters, and highly venomous crates. And again, this list is just scratching the surface. And all in all, the Sivoliak Hills represented 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 would 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 final turnover. So by the time the Miocene ended, the place is already vastly different going into the Plio-Plyssetian era. For example, while the giant tortoise and the four-horned giraffe remained, along with some other recognizable faces, others like our relative, the Siviphythus, had since been wiped away, along with the number of proboscitians, hymnids, phylus, and the giant vivarids who had stocked the lands.

But on the flip side, the Himalayas did receive some new animals as well, including those that were fascinating in their own right. And most notable amongst them was arguably the giant saber-toothed cats, as it was in this era that the Megantarian 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 to the main showstopper, and that was, of course, their supersized, specialized

canines. Each of them were as long as blades, and it 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. Calling corpses off to a safe place where it would then enjoy and savor every bite, using its much smaller carnassials 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 Megantarian,

just 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 Homo sapien, but rather our older ancestor, the Homo erectus, which migrated from Africa and Asia around two million years ago or so. Now, I'm quite certain that the odd erectus here or there probably ended up as cat food. Yet, just like our own history of destruction, the arrival of the erectus actually spelled out more bad news than good for the predators and inhabitants of the Sivoliak Hills. Armed with hand axes, spears, complex society, and a good thinker, these guys were unsurprisingly widely successful,

despite them being physically like us, in other words, quite feeble, with their reconstructed dimensions, being about 141 centimeters or 4 foot 8 inches to 167 centimeters or 5 foot 6 inches tall. And yet, despite being on the smaller side, they thrived. And we know this through the abundance of artifacts present, as well as the retrieval of various animal bones, which show that these guys have been very capable hunters in the ecosystem, taking down 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 megalocelis. And even the landscape likely was heavily altered by them, considering that there was strong evidence that Homo erectus eventually learned to control fire. And so this certainly did not help the ecosystem of the late Miocene Himalayas, which was also confounded by the fact that the Ice Age was slowly ramping up, making world temperatures colder and accelerating the rate of environmental change in the Himalayas and surrounding areas, causing it to become drier and colder,

leading to a further expansion in grasslands that boded well for some, and not so well for many others, with much of the megafauna going extinct. But still some survived. But then when Homo 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 proboscidian 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 all together 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's favorite tooth cats or varvary as the size of tigers that are certainly large enough to eat us. Thanks for watching and until next time on Extinct Zoo. Ambition comes in all shapes and sizes. At First Citizens Bank, we roll with your goals because we're built for what you're building. Fit for your ambition for Citizens Bank. Wireless can feel like a world of traps, but not with you.

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