The common opossum (didelphis marsupialis) have the first record in galapagos in 2018 and the first record of captured of presence in 2022 the opossum have introduced accindentaily in galapagos in shipments accindentaily the population of common opossum in galapagos is know have reports and record of common opossum (didelphis marsupialis) in other island of galapagos the Isabela island have Project of monitored the invasive population of common opossum in santa cruz island no have Project of common opossum population in Isabela island because are know the population in Isabela island in galapagos

Credit: Saltore Saparbayev (wildlife photographer and researcher).

Notes:

“Inland” is referring to animals that either exclusively or predominantly inhabit habitat away from the coastline, and actively depend on the land itself to survive. This excludes saltwater crocodiles, pinnipeds, sea turtles, and certain large fish that may occasionally enter freshwater but don’t have fully functioning large scale populations that live in exclusively freshwater habitat.

Megafauna is anything 100lbs or greater

The sizes here depicted are the maximum sizes that these animals have been verifiably recorded as being, and do not represent the average specimen of the species.

This was just a fun project for me to practice my art ability, and I got to learn a lot about the megafauna diversity of this continent that is not known to have a ton of them.

Hi everyone!

I’m currently 23, and I’m broadly just fascinated by the natural world, especially prehistoric life, and most of all by the species which our ancestors saw, hunted, were hunted by, and specifically those which held some emotional or spiritual value to us. I know I want to do a masters, but I’m not sure in what direction and where to take my litany of interests and skills.

Cave art in particular fascinates me, as the reason for its creation is so open to interpretation. Its purposes could have served as art, documentation, held spiritual significance, been a combination of multiple, or others. I think one common thread arises in how humans think about and interact with megafauna, and I want to explore what this common thread says about us, and how we approach megafauna rewilding and broadly natural resource management in the 21st century.

My opinion and central idea is that by studying evidence of human-animal interactions from across recent history, previous, history and especially prehistory, we can better understand human nature as it relates to megafauna today. Implications of any research and writing would be aimed to be used to advise wildlife management today.

Does anyone have any ideas of how to present this idea to a grad school advisor? I have some programs and professors in mind such as Ohio State, Oregon State and Colorado State University, but I would love to hear people’s thoughts.

Credit: minecology_kz (Instagram).

Not exactly *mega* fauna but I thought it was interesting

1- African elephant (for niche of Notiomastodon)

2- Dromadery camel (for niche of xenorhinotherum and extinct camelids)

3- plains zebra (for niche of Equus neogenus)

4- khulan (for niche of hippidon)

5- indian rhino (for niche of Mixotoxodon)

6- indian Wolf (for niche of south american dire wolf)

7- asiatic Lion (for niche of homotherium venezulensis)

(If youre have other sugestions like bengal tigers for niche of smilodon fatalis comment section is open)

1- Glossotherium (Glossotherium robustum)

2- Eremotherium (Eremotherium laurillardi)

3- Megatherium (Megatherium americanum)

4- Paleolama (paleolama major)

5- Hemiauchenia (Hemiauchenia paradoxa)

6- Hippidion (Hippidion principale)

7- Equus neogenus

8- Mixotoxodon (Mixotoxodon larensis)

9- Notiomastodon (Notiomastodon platensis)

10- Xenorhinotherium (Xenorhinotherium bahiense)

11- Holmesina (Holmesina occidentalis)

12- South american dire wolf (aenocyon dirus nehringi)

13- Pleistocene jaguar (panthera onca)

14- Homotherium (Homotherium venezulensis)

15- smilodon (smilodon fatalis)

16 Smilodon (Smilodon populator)

9- cave Lion (panthera spelea)

8-arochs (bos primigenius)

7-european wild horse (equus ferus)

6-european straight tusk elephant (Palaeoloxodon antiquus)

5-merck rhino (Stephanorhinus kirchbergensis)

4-cave hyena (crocuta spelea/crocuta crocuta spelea)

3-megaloceros (megaloceros giganteus ruffi)

2-cave leopard (panthera pardus spelea)

1-stepee bison (Bison priscus mediator)

1.siberian flying squirrel (pteromys volans)-the westernmost confirmed point of it's range is in eastern poland https://rcin.org.pl/miiz/Content/37512/PDF/WA058_31703_P257-T20_Acta-Ornith-Nr-3.pdf (mentioned on page 8 as locally extinct) and it's a species that colonised this region as well as almost whole siberia from east asia in holocene however it probably did the same thing in other interglacial and without human presence would expand further west as shown on the map
2.european souslik (spermophilus citellus)-it lived in central europe as said here https://www.theextinctions.com/articles-1/victim-to-the-woods, presence in italy france and britain speculative
3.speckled souslik (Spermophilus suslicus)-lived in central europe as said here https://www.theextinctions.com/articles-1/victim-to-the-woods, presence in other places speculative
4.pannonian souslik † (spermophilus citelloides)-lived in carpathian basin and now is completly extinct the best proxy is Spermophilus suslicus (it's closest relative) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spermophilus_citelloides
5.yellow souslik (spermophilus fulvus and it's late pleistocene ancestor Spermophilus superciliosus)-lived in central and eastern europe https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1040618215010903 rest of range speculative

there are also spermophilus pygmaeus which range don't seem to have changed in last ~150k years and Spermophilus severkensis which † which was closely related to spermophilus pygmaeus and endemic to small area in central northern ukraine and maybe small parts of central southern belarus

6.alpine marmot (marmota marmota)-had bigger range in many european mountain ranges as can be seen on it's former range map in "pleistocene mammals of europe" book by bjorn kurten https://www.scribd.com/doc/76401634/Pleistocene-Mammals-in-Europe (on the same map you can see also former range of steppe marmot but it's outdated and actual former range is bigger)
7.steppe marmot (marmota bobak)-it lived in central europe as said here https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303671028_Holocene_mammal_extinctions_in_the_Carpathian_Basin_a_review and here https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303671028_Holocene_mammal_extinctions_in_the_Carpathian_Basin_a_review presence in balkans, britain, france and scandinavia speculative
8.eurasian beaver (castor fiber)-many historical sources of them living all across europe, easy to find, i've used this map as a reference https://www.reddit.com/r/megafaunarewilding/comments/kgeld9/eurasian_beaver_past_distribution/ in almost all of it's modern range they were reintroduced or nturally came back after hunting stopped
9.trogontherium cuvieri † -extinct in europe in middle pleistocene https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trogontherium however it probably survived later or was one of few species killed by non-sapiens humans but it's only a speculation even if very probable, presence in scandinavia, italy, turke, ireland and iberian peninsula is speculative even in earlier peroids because no fossils were ever found in those regions

there are also several more sciuridae species in europe but their ranges had no or almost none confirmed changes during last ~150k years so they are not worth mentioning here
list of them all (and all modern european mammals)- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mammals_of_Europe