Animals That Were SCARIER Than Dinosaurs
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Dunkleosteus had powerful jaws, Helicoprion sported a unique jaw, Terror Birds were fierce predators, and Andrewsarchus was a massive meat-eater. Titanoboa was the largest snake, Jaekelopterus was an eight-foot sea scorpion, Phoberomys Pattersoni was a giant rodent, Hallucigenia puzzled scientists, Anthropleura was a huge millipede, and Mosasaurus was a formidable marine predator.
Insights
- Dunkleosteus, with its armor-plated head and powerful bite force, was a formidable predator in the late Devonian Period, showcasing the evolution of specialized feeding adaptations in prehistoric fish.
- Titanoboa, the largest snake ever, utilized ambush predator tactics and exploited gravity to grow to an immense size, highlighting the diverse strategies ancient reptiles employed for survival and dominance in their ecosystems.
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Recent questions
What was Dunkleosteus known for?
Powerful bite force and armored head.
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Summary
00:00
Prehistoric Creatures: Ancient Giants of Earth
- Dunkleosteus, a water-dwelling fish from the late Devonian Period, had a streamlined body, armor-plated head, and two long bony blades for crushing prey, generating up to 8000 pounds of bite force per square inch.
- Helicoprion, a 270-million-year-old fish, had a mysterious tooth whorl that was later discovered to fill its lower jaw in a buzz-saw like formation, rotating backward to catch prey, with the largest specimen having a two-foot-wide jaw.
- Terror Birds, the Phorusrhacidae, were top land predators in South America for 60 million years, growing up to 10 feet tall with T-Rex-like feet and a hooked beak, using their pickaxe-like beak and bony heads to crack skulls of prey.
- Platybelodon, a prehistoric elephant ancestor, had a bizarre jaw with a second pair of widened tusks used for slicing vegetation, with the purpose of these tusks debated among paleontologists.
- Andrewsarchus, a carnivorous mammal from the Eocene era, had a massive skull with bone-crushing teeth, a 16-foot-long body, and hoofed feet, making it the largest known meat-eating land mammal.
- Titanoboa, a 50-foot-long snake from the Palaeocene epoch, was the largest snake ever, hunting large reptiles like crocodiles with its ambush predator tactics, exploiting gravity to reach its enormous size.
- Jaekelopterus, a sea scorpion from the Silurian period, grew up to eight feet in length, with oarlike back legs for swimming, spring-loaded claws for catching prey, and one claw measuring 18 inches across.
- Phoberomys Pattersoni, a giant rodent from the Miocene era, was the size of a buffalo, with fossils found in Venezuela, showcasing the diversity of prehistoric creatures.
14:40
Giant Prehistoric Creatures: Rodents, Worms, Millipedes, Reptiles
- Phoberomys Pattersoni, the largest rodents to have ever existed, were around 10-feet-long with an additional five feet of tail, weighing approximately 800 KG, similar in size to an American Bison.
- Phoberomys Pattersoni, plant-eaters with foot-long incisors, resembled capybaras but mysteriously disappeared 8 million years ago.
- Hallucigenia, a thumb-sized worm, baffled scientists for over 50 years before its head was determined, resembling a creature from a bad trip.
- Hallucigenia, identified as an annelid worm, was later discovered to walk on spines and have legs, with its head revealed in 2015 to have eyes and teeth.
- Anthropleura, an eight-and-a-half-foot-long millipede from the Carboniferous Period, moved with hundreds of legs, likely herbivorous, and went extinct due to climate changes.
- Anthropleura, the largest land invertebrates, had flexible bodies and likely no natural predators due to their size.
- Mosasaurus, a marine reptile related to snakes and monitor lizards, was a warm-blooded carnivore that reached lengths of 45-50 feet and weighed around 5-and-a-half tons.
- Mosasaurus, successful predators with fanged teeth, ate various prey including sea birds, and became dominant marine predators until the K-Pg extinction event.
