If you think encountering a big, fat hairy spider is scary… imagine running in to one of these massively terrifying extinct creatures from the past! It’s not often we can get away with saying, “thank goodness that’s extinct.” Today we come face-to-face with some of the most terrifying extinct creatures… ever!
Subscribe to Talltanic http://goo.gl/wgfvrr
11 - Tame the beast…
Insects from way back when are all pretty terrifying. Thank goodness they’ve evolved or gone extinct, as we’d never leave our homes otherwise! The ancestor of the dragonfly is a Meganeura, who had a wingspan of 2-feet! They were around 300 million years ago and were predators, feeding off other insects. There are various theories as to why they were so big, including, “Oxygen levels and atmospheric density”, their general lack of predators and their “Aquatic larvae stadium”, referring to animals that developed in water who changed to land animals as a way to survive.
10 - Set the record straight…
Most people are under the impression that the pterodactyl was a dinosaur, but that’s not quite true. The pterodactyl was from a totally different order from dinosaurs and was really a pterosaur. You’d also be forgiven for thinking it was the most dangerous animal in the eye, that title goes to the quetzalcoatlus – the largest creature to ever take to the skies! Sadly, the fossil records aren’t that great, so no one knows quite how large it really was! Estimates have been anything between a wingspan of 35-feet to over 60-feet. It’s “guestimated” that it weighed between 450 and 550-pounds. They soared through the sky 68 million years ago and were discovered in 1971 at Big Bend National Park in Texas.
9 - Nightmares are made of this…
The Pulmonoscorpius is a giant extinct species of scorpion that was alive roughly 345 million years ago! Not very much information is available about this beast of a scorpion barring the fact that it was discovered in Scotland, grew to around 30-inches long and probably ate small arthropods and tetrapods.
8 - Dinosaurs’ daddy?...
It’s not really fair that dinosaurs get all the publicity, whilst the earth was full of scary beasts before they hit the scene. Take this guy for example, known to his friends as Gorgonops. He ruled the roost about 250 million years ago, helped by massive canines that made a sabre-toothed tiger look tame. That along with power, speed, and a length of 10ft promoted these guys to the top of the food chain.
7 - Try the lobster…
Meet Aegirocassis, believed to be an ancestor to modern day lobsters, and also around before the dinosaurs. This sea creature grew up to 7 feet in length and was one of the largest animals alive at the time.
6 - Monster from the deep…
Now this is a truly frightening animal, who’s name translated means "lizard of the Meuse River” due to the first fossil of its type having being found in the French river.
The largest specimen found was 56 feet long and was active during the late Cretaceous period. Remember the sea creature leaping out of the water in the latest Jurassic Park movie?
No wonder sea creatures started developing limbs to adapt to life on land. If I was a sea creature, one look at this guy would have had me trying to evolve super-fast!
5 - Leave the past behind…
The Anomalocaris was native to the Cambrian period which dates between 541 million years ago - 485,4 million years ago. The name Anomalocaris means abnormal shrimp, and this predator fed on hard-bodied sea creatures. One of their most distinctive features was their unique eyes which had 30,000 lenses. They’re thought to have the most advanced eyes of any species of its time.
4 - As scarce as hen's teeth…
That’s partly because they are no longer around! The Phorusrhacidae are large, cumbersome, flightless birds that love to devour meat. They could grow between 3 and 10-feet long and reached heights of 10-feet too! They could run 30 mph and had a beak like an eagle. Found in South America, these birds were the top predator for millions of years!
3 - Deep, dark web…
The Attercopus was a spider-like animal that sported the tail of a scorpion. This might make arachnophobes rather glad they’re dealing with the types of spiders they’re dealing with today. It was commonly believed that this creature was the prehistoric ancestor of a spider, but new evidence has proved otherwise. Seems these guys didn’t spin those deep, dark webs, but rather used their silk to protect their eggs and construct burrow walls.
2 - What’s in a name?
With a name like Dunkleosteus, you can’t imagine a creature that would be scary in the least, but that name doesn’t do it justice! These hyper-carnivorous fish were in our waters between 380–360 million years ago and could reach lengths of 33-feet and weigh up to 4 tons! A heavily armored fish, this guy couldn’t move very fast in the water, but he certainly was powerful!
1...
