Eons | PBS The Island of Huge Hamsters and Giant Owls | Eons WKNO Published June 6, 2024 at 4:00 AM CDT Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Back in the late Miocene epoch, there was an island--or maybe a group of islands-- in the Mediterranean Sea that was populated with fantastic giant beasts. It’s a lesson in the very strange, but very real, powers of natural selection.