There Be Giants

Megafauna -- large animals -- have always interested us. Everyone knows about the Dinosaurs, but how many know about the other evolutionary experiments in gigantic versions of the species we know today. Enormous reptiles, birds, and mammals have come and gone. What about primates and humans? Is there scientific proof that giant humans once walked the Earth? Let's see:

FISH

In the present day, there are plenty of enormous fish in the seas. For instance, the largest fish in the world, the Whale Shark, is as large as, well, a whale. However, the most ferocious fish in the sea is the Great White Shark, which can reach lengths of 20 feet and weigh over 4,900 pounds. However, the Great White could be swallowed whole by its relative of 1.5 million years ago, the Megalodon. This fish could grow to 67 feet, with teeth 7 inches long;, and a weight topping 100,000 pounds. It was, in fact, larger than the present-day Whale Shark. And it bites. [See accompanying photo; the Great White is the tiny green fish.]

REPTILES

Dinosaurs were reptiles, of course, but I'm talking about relatives of reptiles that have survived to the present day. What were their gigantic counterparts in history? You know those cute turtles you played with as a kid? You know: with the fake plastic green palm tree in a plastic tray? Those are small turtles. There are seven species of present-day Sea Turtles, and they are much larger: They grow to 7 feet in length, 5 feet in width, and can weigh as much as 1,300 pounds. That's big, right? But what about Archelon, a sea turtle that lived 65 million years ago. It was twice as long as the largest present-day sea turtle, and it reached 16 feet flipper to flipper. Turtle soup? You would have 4,500 pounds to work with.
Crocodiles are the largest reptiles on earth, growing to as much as 20 feet long and 2,000 pounds. However, Sarcosuchus, which existed 112 million years ago, was twice as long and is estimated to have weighed up to 22,000 pounds. Why it weighed 10 times as much while it was only twice as long could be a mystery, but as you can see from the accompanying chart, it also was much taller. Fortunately, the name Sarcosuchus Dundee does not roll off the tongue.

BIRDS

Many believe that modern-day Birds have evolved directly from Dinosaurs. However, for our purposes, let's just call them birds. We all know about emus in Australia and ostriches in Africa; they are the biggest birds these days. An ostrich can be 9 feet tall and reach 340 pounds. However, Dinomis (Giant Moa) lived in New Zealand as recently as the 16th century, when it went extinct because of human hunting. The Giant Moa grew as high as 12 feet and weighed up to 530 pounds. [See the photo that compares Kiwi, Ostrich, and Giant Moa skeletons.]

Speaking of New Zealand, there was a huge eagle there. Unfortunately, Haast’s Eagle's main food source was the Giant Moa -- so when the Moa's numbers dropped dramatically, so did the eagle's, until it too went extinct. Haast's Eagle, by the way, weighed about 33 pounds. While you might not be impressed, fondly remembering your 33-pound turkey from last Thanksgiving, keep in mind that the 33 pounds of eagle included razor-sharp claws that would swoop down from above with its 10-foot wingspan at 50 miles an hour. Can your butterball do that?

MAMMALS

There still are some large mammals in the world, such as the Elephant and the Rhino, but even they pale in comparison to other extinct mammals that don't have any close living relatives. Back to Australia again, up until about 50,000 years ago, there was a Kangaroo there, Procoptodon, which stood 10 feet tall and weighed 510 pounds.

More unsettling was the largest rat in history: 2 million years ago, Josephoartigasia monesi was 10 feet long and weighed 2,200 pounds. It had to eat a lot of garbage to reach that weight. Check out the image above to see how it compares to a human and to the largest existing rodent.

PRIMATES

Ah, now we get to the interesting bit. The world's largest primate is the Gorilla, which can be 5.75 feet tall and weigh over 440 pounds after a fine meal. I can't say how big King Kong was, but a followup film in 1949 (and a 1998 remake), "Mighty Joe Young," starred a special- effects gorilla that was about 11 feet tall. So, was there a real "King Kong" or even a "Joseph Young"? Actually, yes, there was. About 200,000 years ago, Gigantopithecus stood about 10 feet tall and probably weighed as much as 1,200 pounds. This was the largest primate that ever lived. The species lived mostly in Asia, so it's highly unlikely that any of them ever made it to Hollywood.

So, that brings us to humans. We are most familiar with Homo sapiens. Most individuals are under 6 feet tall, and those few that are over 7 feet are forced to play basketball. There have always been legends and myths about giant people, such as Goliath, but those tales are generally written off as fantasy. We are also familiar with the Neanderthals, as well as Homo erectus and its ilk. Most of the other hominids, if not all, apparently were even shorter than we are, and they apparently were not coordinated enough to hit 3-point shots from the perimeter. So, why is it that so many of the present animals in the world had undergone evolutionary tryouts for giant versions, yet we never hear about giant human relatives? Even the apes had their own version. Why was there no race of giants? Well, actually, there was!

In 1941, the first fossiled remains of Meganthropus was found in Java, Indonesia. The jawbone was from a human-like creature (not ape-like, such as Gigantopithecus) that was larger than any present day human or gorilla. Using subsequent finds to extrapolate, it is estimated that Meganthropus could have been almost 9 feet tall, and would have weighed about 1,000 pounds. For perspective, this means that, on tippy-toes, its head would have touched the bottom of a basketball hoop.

Scientists are confused about how to classify this creature, because it doesn't easily fit into any standard evolutionary branch. It is most likely a sub-species of Homo erectus, but even that is speculation. It is not even certain when Meganthropus lived, although it appears to have been contemporary with Homo erectus and even Gigantopithecus. Some of its bones were discovered among simple tools, so it wasn't just all brawn.

Some claim that this species might not be extinct after all, and they speculate that it has evolved into what we know as "Bigfoot." If this is true, it would hard to explain how it got to the western U.S. (and other places) from the island of Java. Still others think that this race of giants might have been an ancient iconic memory, and that the Hebrew Bible refers to them as the Nephilim:

"The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bore children to them; the same were the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown." -- Genesis 6:4

"'The land, through which we have passed to spy it out, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature. And there we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, who come of the Nephilim; and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.' " -- Numbers 13:32-33

Bigfoots ("Bigfeet"?) or Nephilim, sons of Anak or sons of Erectus, Meganthropus has been scientifically proven to have been a giant among men.