Paleocene to Holocene life-forms

[Morose]

Name: Smilodon
Pronunciation: Smile-oh-don
Meaning of name: "Knife tooth".
Species: S. populator, S. fatalis, S. gracilis.
Size: Depending on species, measured up to 2.5 metres long and standing between 1 and 1.5 metres tall. The largest species, S. populator, weighed between 200 and 400kgs.
Family: Machairodontinae (a sub-family of Felidae)
Diet: Carnivore.
First fossils found: Known from hundreds of individuals, many of which were discovered in natural traps such as the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles. First discovered by Danish naturalist, Peter Wilhelm Lund, in caves in Brazil sometime during the 1830s. First discovered in the USA during the second half of the 19th century. S. populator named by Mr. Lund in 1842. S. fatalis named by American palaeontologist, Joseph Mellick Leidy, in 1869. S. gracilis named by American palaeontologist, Edward Drinker Cope, in 1880. Despite commonly being referred to as the Sabre-toothed tiger, Smilodon actually belongs to a different cat family.
Lived: 2.5 million years ago to 10,000 years ago from the Gelasian stage of the Pleistocene era through to the Greenlandian stage of the Holocene era in what is now western Canada, South America and the USA.

[Morose]

Name: Megaloceros
Pronunciation: Meg-ah-loss-seh-ross
Meaning of name: "Great horn".
Species: M. stavropolensis, M. giganteus, M. luochuanensis, M. matritensis, M. novocarthaginiensis, M. savini, M. antecedens.
Size: The largest species, M. giganteus, measured around 3 metres long, between 2 and 3 metres tall and weighing up to 700kgs.
Family: Cervidae
Diet: Herbivore.
First fossils found: Known from multiple specimens discovered in Russia, China, Spain, Germany, Ireland and France. M. giganteus named by Johann Friedrich Blumenbach in 1799. The most spectacular feature of this animal was its massive set of antlers. It's believed that only males had antlers and, on some of the larger species, these antlers spanned a width of nearly four metres and weighed more than 30kgs.
Lived: 2.588 million years ago from the Gelasian stage of the Pleistocene era through to the most recent Ice Age in what is now Europe and Asia.

[Morose]

Name: Ornimegalonyx
Pronunciation: Or-ni-meg-ah-lon-ix
Meaning of name: "Bird giant claw". Also known as 'The Cuban Giant Owl' and 'The Giant Cursorial Owl'.
Species: O. oteroi, O. minor, O. gigas, O. acevedoi.
Size: 1.1 metres tall and weighing around 9kgs.
Family: Strigidae.
Diet: Carnivore.
First fossils found: Known from several specimens, some of which are almost complete, discovered only in Cuba and the surrounding islands. Date of first discovery uncertain. O. oteroi named by Cuban palaeontologist, Oscar Paulino Arredondo de la Mata, in 1954. O. minor, O. gigas and O. acevedoi named in 1982. Ornimegalonyx had relatively small wings, so it's unclear whether or not it was capable of flight.
Lived: 126,000 to 11,700 years ago during the Tarantian stage of the Late Pleistocene in what is now Cuba.