Prehistoric Neighbors: Meet the Seven Animals That Lived Alongside Humans

From giant armadillos to saber-toothed tigers, these creatures once roamed the same world as our ancestors

Meet the Animals of the Stone Age

As humans evolved and spread across the globe, they encountered a diverse array of animals that shared their environment. Some of these animals were friendly, while others were fearsome predators. Here's a peek at some of the animals that walked alongside ancient humans and how these animals which once ruled the world slowly.

The animals of the Stone Age include:

• Cave bear
• Dire wolf
• Glyptodon
• Marsupial lion
• Mastodon
• Smilodon
• Woolly mammoth

The Prehistoric Armadillo the Size of a Car

The glyptodon was a giant armadillo that lived in South America during the Pleistocene epoch. It was one of the largest land animals of its time, weighing up to 2 tons and measuring up to 10 feet long. The glyptodon's shell was made up of bony plates that were covered in a layer of keratin. This shell provided excellent protection from predators, but it also made the glyptodon very slow-moving. As a result, the glyptodon was an easy target for human hunters, and it eventually went extinct around 10,000 years ago.