By threatening their survival, we have forced other species to become familiar with the danger. An evolutionary advantage exclusive to African animals.
Elephants, hippos, giraffes dominate African landscapes. What do they have in common? They are big — very big. And how do they differ from land animals on the rest of the planet’s continents? They’re bigger — much bigger.
The African continent is home to the largest living land animal (savanna elephant), the largest bird (ostrich) and the largest primate (eastern gorilla). It also has the tallest animal on the planet, the giraffe. Oh! And the rhino, or the hippopotamus, which typically weigh more than a ton.
While Europe and North America are home to large predators such as bears and wolves, it is in Africa that the Earth’s giants are concentrated. But what explains this concentration of species of impressive size?
Contrary to what one might think, this supremacy It’s recent in the long history of life on Earth.
About 100 million years ago, the gigantic dinosaur Patagotitan mayorumdiscovered in Argentina, were terrestrial beings ever. And until a thousand years ago, Madagascar’s extinct elephant birds rivaled any modern animal in size.
The explanation lies in the evolutionary history shared between humans and megafauna. Although Africa also suffered major extinctions, they were all less severe than on other continents. When the A wise man began to expand during the late Quaternary, leading to the extinction of numerous large species throughout the world. But In Africa, animals evolved side by side with the first hominids: this is what made them more cautious and adapted to human presence.
For example, species from the Paleotropical region (which includes sub-Saharan Africa and parts of tropical Asia) have recorded significantly lower extinction rates than those from Europe, America or Australia, a study in Global found. Ecology and Biogeography in 2024. According to researchers, prolonged coexistence with human ancestors worked as an evolutionary “filter”, that is, it led to the elimination of species with more vulnerable characteristics and favored those that better resisted hunting and environmental pressure. And so the great Africans prospered.
Tomás Guimarães, ZAP //
