megafauna
noun
mega·fau·na ˈme-gə-ˌfȯ-nə 
-ˌfä-
1
: animals (such as bears, bison, or mammoths) of particularly large size
2
: fauna consisting of individuals large enough to be visible to the naked eye
megafaunal
ˈme-gə-ˌfȯ-nᵊl
adjective -ˌfä-
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the Web The museum's exhibits also include some of the world's largest megafauna, thought to be 50,000 to 100,000 years old, and a variety of microfauna. 
CNN, 17 July 2022 But where the planet had rocketed out of ice ages before and the megafauna had kept up, now an unprecedented actor stepped on the landscape. Peter Brannen, The Atlantic, 22 June 2022 By the end of the nineteenth century, the dinosaur had dethroned the woolly mammoth as an American emblem—and become the favorite megafauna of Gilded Age oligarchs. Jill Lepore, The New Yorker, 7 Aug. 2022 Graham hopes that through education and providing an economic alternative for fishing communities, MarAlliance will help to ensure safe passage for megafauna along the reef. Nell Lewis; Video By Stefanie Blendis, CNN, 30 June 2022 Our own populations were swelling, and megafauna extinctions that had already hit Eurasia, Australia, and even Africa in the tens of millennia before were now sweeping the Americas. Peter Brannen, The Atlantic, 22 June 2022 But there were also megafauna that went extinct at the end of the ice age, like mammoths, mastodons, saber-toothed cats and giant ground sloths. Denise Su, The Conversation, 27 June 2022 Condors commanded the skies as early as the Pleistocene, when mammoths, saber-toothed cats and other megafauna prowled California. Rosanna Xiastaff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 17 May 2022 Extinct megafauna have previously been identified in rock art in other parts of the world, but the burden of proof is exceptionally high. New York Times, 6 Mar. 2022 See More
CNN, 17 July 2022 But where the planet had rocketed out of ice ages before and the megafauna had kept up, now an unprecedented actor stepped on the landscape. Peter Brannen, The Atlantic, 22 June 2022 By the end of the nineteenth century, the dinosaur had dethroned the woolly mammoth as an American emblem—and become the favorite megafauna of Gilded Age oligarchs. Jill Lepore, The New Yorker, 7 Aug. 2022 Graham hopes that through education and providing an economic alternative for fishing communities, MarAlliance will help to ensure safe passage for megafauna along the reef. Nell Lewis; Video By Stefanie Blendis, CNN, 30 June 2022 Our own populations were swelling, and megafauna extinctions that had already hit Eurasia, Australia, and even Africa in the tens of millennia before were now sweeping the Americas. Peter Brannen, The Atlantic, 22 June 2022 But there were also megafauna that went extinct at the end of the ice age, like mammoths, mastodons, saber-toothed cats and giant ground sloths. Denise Su, The Conversation, 27 June 2022 Condors commanded the skies as early as the Pleistocene, when mammoths, saber-toothed cats and other megafauna prowled California. Rosanna Xiastaff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 17 May 2022 Extinct megafauna have previously been identified in rock art in other parts of the world, but the burden of proof is exceptionally high. New York Times, 6 Mar. 2022 See More Word History
First Known Use
1927, in the meaning defined at sense 1