Giant Missouri Beavers

Today’s beaver skull compared to the giant beavers that once lived in Missouri. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Giant Missouri Beavers

Yes, Missouri at one time had very large beavers. The proof was at the Kimmswick, Missouri Mastodon Museum, located on the site of an archaeological excavation that found proof that Mammoth Elephants roamed Missouri millions of years ago.

At that same time, Mammoths lived among a number of giant creatures including giant beavers.

A number of years ago, I worked with a team of biologists trying to find a way to discourage a family of beavers from making damns along one of the river tributaries where they were trying to restore natural communities. During those discussions, I learned a lot about beavers including how industrious they are and how well they deserve the nickname of engineers.

The way they can cut down trees to make their wooden logs is one of nature’s many amazing features.

Here are the beavers fully-covered in fur. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Now can you imagine what giant beavers could do? I imagined they had much larger trees to deal with but the museum has concluded they probably fed on softer kinds of vegetation.

Now that’s a big - no, giant - beaver! (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Meanwhile their modern counterparts are much smaller although more efficient in terms of what they do with their teeth.

Dimensions of today’s beaver for comparison. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

The project I was tracking ended up catching the beavers and moving them to another part of the forest where they wanted a damn built, and the beavers were only too happy to help.

While discussing the findings of these creatures, I asked the docent if they had found bees and what size they may have been. After going through a listing of what creatures they had confirmed to date, there was nothing in the records about the size of bees but it does make one wonder, doesn’t it?

Charlotte