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megafauna (MEG-uh-faw-nuh) - n., large animals, esp. relatively large for a particular region, period, or habitat; (outdated) animals large enough to be seen with the unaided eye.
Ancient Greek mégas meant great/large/mighty, cognate with Latin magnus and English much, is the source of today's prefix, which got a popularity boost for being used in the metric system to mean a million-x unit (though the scaling is modified to 220 in computing contexts). The most recent ice ages were known for animals that were larger than their modern counterparts, which is the most common use for megafauna that I meet. The term was coined in 1876 by Alfred Russel Wallace, though it was not commonly used until the 1920s. Other words with mega- include megaton ("a million tons") and megabrew ("large-batch beer").
---L.
Ancient Greek mégas meant great/large/mighty, cognate with Latin magnus and English much, is the source of today's prefix, which got a popularity boost for being used in the metric system to mean a million-x unit (though the scaling is modified to 220 in computing contexts). The most recent ice ages were known for animals that were larger than their modern counterparts, which is the most common use for megafauna that I meet. The term was coined in 1876 by Alfred Russel Wallace, though it was not commonly used until the 1920s. Other words with mega- include megaton ("a million tons") and megabrew ("large-batch beer").
---L.
