3 unique Ice Age movie animals that are not fictional

Ice Age movies must have caught the fancy of many of you. This popular series of animated movies, which kicked off from 2002, has introduced us to fascinating animals, born out of the imagination of their creators. However, very few of you know that not all of them are fictional. Yes, you heard us right. Some of these creatures actually used to exist ages back. Want to know about them? Read on.  

Manny  
All you Ice Age movie fans are well-acquainted with Manfred, popularly known as Manny. He leads a herd of animals brought together by a series of adventures and is loved by all for his kindness, bravery and selfless nature. This woolly mammoth from the Ice Age franchise is identical to the African elephant but only larger in size. If you have seen pictures of mammoth, then you must have noticed a stark difference between your favourite Manny and this animal. Wondering what’s that? Well, Mammoths were black or blond in colour, and not reddish-brown as shown in Ice Age. 

Scientists have found that this species existed about 200,000 years ago in North America and areas around eastern Eurasia. Yes, that’s true! However, mammoths were quite different from today’s elephants. While mammoths used to have a thick layer of fur spread across their body consisting of long hair as well as shorter yet dense undercoat, elephants are bare-skinned and have smaller ears. Wait, that’s not all.  Today’s elephants have trunks and mammoths had a pair of exceedingly long tusks that looked like arcs around their faces. They used it to acquire food and fight with predators. However, just like today’s elephants, they were herbivores, and preferred grass and sedges as their food.  

Sid  
Sid is the much-loved giant ground sloth from Ice Age movies who is lazy and has many shortcomings. But you remember him for his loyalty towards people he cares about, isn’t it? Well, it is presumed that this creature belongs to a species that is related to modern-day tree sloths but have no resemblance whatsoever. Ground sloths lived during the real Ice Age and originated in Argentina in South America. However, they spread across northern and southern North America later on. Unlike today’s tree-living sloths, ground sloths were large in size, sometimes as big as the mammoth, and used to live on ground. They also had huge claws but hardly used them to catch their preys. In fact, they were not predators by nature. Instead, they were fun-loving and peaceful animals feeding on tree leaves, grasses and shrubs found in their glacial habitat.  

Diego  
You all know that Diego, the sabe-toothed cat, was the best friend of Manny and Sid in the Ice Age movies. But do you know that smilodons actually lived during the original Ice Age? They happen to be the largest living felines of all time native to North and South America. Although they resembled cats, thanks to their long canine teeth, they looked like bears, having sturdy bodies to prey on other large animals such as bison, deer, American camels, horses and ground sloths. Here’s an interesting fact for you: Smilodons were super intelligent predators who used to catch their preys with quick, powerful and deep-stabbing bites on the throat or upper neck regions.