What are Some Extinct Predators of Humans?
Contrary to popular belief in the developed world, there are quite a few animals that will gladly prey on susceptible humans. These include Saltwater Crocodiles, the grey wolf, Great White Shark, tigers, and several others. In the last two centuries, tens of thousands of humans have died from attacks by these animals, especially tigers and crocodiles. But, by and large, humans reign over these animals with tools like guns and traps. This was not always the case, as there are many extinct predators of humans that would have terrorized humanity as the giant crocodile Gustave today terrorizes the natives in places like Lake Tangianyika in Burundi. This article will focus on three extinct likely predators of humans — the Cave Hyena, Dire Wolf, and the giant Australian lizard Megalania. All these animals existed for over a million years and went extinct between 40,000 and 9,000 years ago, strongly suggesting that humans were the agent of extinction. The Cave Hyena was an subspecies of the
