Why scientists think cows could be the largest animals on land in 300 years

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Cows — simple-minded, prone to belching, and eager to eat — may be the planet’s largest land animals in two or three centuries. 

But it’s not because they’re getting any bigger. 

Rather, these approximately 2,000 pound-ungulates could be the largest land mammals left alive in the next few hundred years.

Ever since our human ancestors became interested in eating meat some 1.8 million years ago, the biggest animals have been expertly hunted, driving populations down.

In fact, spear-wielding hunters, not climate change, could be the defining reason for the steady demise of Earth’s largest mammals, argue scientists in a study published Thursday in the journal Science. Read more…

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