Why were prehistoric era animals so gigantic in comparison to animals from the “modern era”

Question

Why were prehistoric era animals so gigantic in comparison to animals from the “modern era”

In: 1281

Answer 1

There are a few different answers. But the most relevant (aka during prehistory like you asked, while humans were around but before documentation) is that *we* drove them to extinction. There’s a reason only Africa and the oceans still have megafauna. African animals evolved with us and knew us as predators while other continents didn’t, and we couldn’t effectively scour the oceans. Until now, that is, and you can see the extinction of the ocean’s megafauna happening in real time.

Source: my education, but *Sapiens: A Brief History of Mankind* by Yuval Noah Harari also outlines it fantastically.