Europe had many extinct animals during the Pleistocene, adapted to the cold and changing characteristics during glacial and interglacial periods. These included the cave bear, giant unicorn, and woolly rhinoceros. Hominids, including Neanderthals, also lived in Europe and became extinct.
During most of the Pleistocene (1.8 million to 10,000 years ago), Europe had many unusual extinct animals, some of which are hard to imagine today. Since the start of the last ice age about 2.58 million years ago, Eurasia and North America have undergone cycles of glaciations and corresponding interglacials, in which continental glaciers covered much of the planet north of 50 degrees latitude, and then retreated to the extreme north. As a result, many of Europe’s extinct fauna have adapted to the cold. These extinct animals often changed their characteristics during glacial and interglacial periods: for example, the cave bear tended to be larger during glacials and smaller during interglacials.
Some of the characteristic extinct Ice Age and interglacial animals that existed in Europe were the European hippopotamus (larger than today’s hippos), the cave bear (larger than the brown bear but fortunately vegetarian), the giant unicorn (Elasmotherium, a 20-foot-long giant rhinoceros), the straight-tusked elephant (thriving in Europe during interglacial times), Deinotherium (an elephant, the third largest land mammal ever known to have lived), Dinofelis (“terrible cat ”, a saber-toothed cat, about the size of a jaguar), the southern mammoth (with long curved tusks), the giant Tenerife rat (nearly a foot long; an example of island gigantism), and the woolly rhinoceros ( with complete protection from the cold of the ice ages). The Asiatic lion and cheetah also lived in Europe during prehistoric times.
In ancient times, hominids lived in Europe and are members of the group of animals that became extinct there. The most famous of the extinct animals that were hominids were the Neanderthals, which went extinct around the Strait of Gibraltar about 22,000 years ago. Some Neanderthal skulls have been found with a wide admixture of features, which some scientists have argued suggest intermarriage. However, genetic testing of human and Neanderthal genomes discourages the idea that there was any interbreeding between the groups.
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