15 Animals Caught FROZEN in Time

a snake eating a dinosaur egg a mysterious sea monster giving birth to something very strange fossilized animals have always fascinated us because they help us understand earth's unusual past here are 15 animals caught frozen in time number 15 sue the t-rex in 1990 sue hendrickson made history when she found a record-breaking tyrannosaurus rex fossil that was one of the largest most complete and best preserved specimens ever discovered to put this into perspective before sue's fine paleontologists had only ever discovered about 60 of a t-rex fossil however this spectacular specimen was notable for being about 90 percent complete being about 12 meters long and is 4 meters tall when measured at her hip it can still be viewed today at the field museum which became its resting place after it was purchased by the institution in 1997 for a record price of 8.4 million dollars number 14 farm discovery in 2015 a michigan farmer was in for a shock when he found the remains of a woolly mammoth estimated to be between 10 000 and 15 000 years old and of an average size for the species this discovery occurred on the farmer's property which is located just southwest of ann arbor michigan consequently the farmer reported his findings to researchers from the university of michigan who soon came in to excavate the fossilized skeleton interestingly enough upon further investigation they went on to conclude that the specimen had not died of natural causes but rather had been hunted by humans thousands of years ago as a result this fossil really is rather unique number 13 backyard discovery in 2015 a man and his two sons were digging a duck pond in their backyard in lancashire england when they came upon a shocking discovery this discovery was that of a skeleton that was embedded in the clay of their backyard originally the father thought that they came across the body of a murder victim luckily he soon realized that instead of a human they had found an animal and more precisely a wolf with the trio wasting no time reporting the skeleton it turned out that it was not just a wolf but a prehistoric wolf and as such was believed to be around 10 to 20 000 years old number 12 pregnant sea monster while finding a pregnant dinosaur certainly would be cool in 2010 scientists actually got to make this a reality that's because in april of that year an expecting ichthyosaur was found in yorkshire england discovered inside of a boulder it had a total of eight embryos inside of it many experts believing that these were the sea monsters unborn babies now in the private collection of martin rigby who had himself contacted the university of manchester when he initially spotted the dinosaur babies within the skeleton the four-inch embryos and their mother have since been put on display at the yorkshire museum number 11 dino deathmatch dinosaurs certainly are feisty animals and in 1971 paleontologists saw this firsthand when they discovered fossils depicting a dino death match found in mongolia the two specimens were a velociraptor and a protoceratops with the velociraptor which is a carnivore being found with one of his claws locked into the protoceratops carotid artery which should have killed it meanwhile the protoceratops a herbivore was defending itself from the velociraptor by wrapping its jaw around its attacker's arm regardless it's believed that both met their demise not from each other but rather when a falling land mass struck them and did away with them both now eternally locked in combat it is likely that we will not ever see such a fossil display ever again number 10 mummified dog while egyptian cats of years past are generally the only mummified animals we found in 2002 a mummified dog found in the u.s state of georgia completely shook this narrative found inside a hollow tree trunk by loggers from the craft corporation it was likely that he was chasing an animal such as a squirrel or raccoon when he fell into the trunk and got stuck within upon further investigation it was found that the dog who was aptly named stucky was a hunting dog that had gone missing in 1980 meaning that he had been stuck in the tree for over 20 years now experts believe that the dog was mummified in the tree due to a combination of factors which included the fact that the tree's chimney-like effect helped rid it of its dead animal scent that would have attracted other organisms and the fact that the tree had relatively dry conditions due to its tannic acid which helped absorb the dog's moisture and harden its skin stopping it from decaying and thus preserving it interestingly enough if you're the type that has a morbid fascination with the dog you may be happy to know that it can still be seen today at the southern forest world museum and environmental center in waycross georgia 9. ancient sperm while sperm isn't typically the first thing that paleontologists keep an eye out for it has occasionally been found in animals fossilized under the arctic or antarctic ice now to date the oldest ever recorded sperm that's been discovered is about 50 million years old with it being found within an annelid cocoon that was located in the antarctic peninsula researchers determined that the sperm inside the cocoon came from a klythlate or collard worm which had released the sperm and eggs into said cocoon in order to keep them untouched until their offspring emerged it should come as no surprise that the preservation was made possible by the cocoon itself as it gave a protective shell that allowed the egg and sperm to remain intact until its discovery yet the sperm is invisible to the naked eye as only after using a microscope or paleontologist able to find this historic sample regardless it stands apart against the previous record holder which was a springtail sperm found inside a baltic amber by about 40 million years we are constantly adding more people to the top fives production team to bring you all the best content be sure to subscribe with notifications on and hit the like button number eight northwest passage find while all the fossils on this list have been of animals or prehistoric creatures in 2014 and 2016 a ship following the arctic trail of sir john franklin's northwest passage made a much more disturbing discovery this journey which had been undertaken in order to find the lost ships from sir john franklin's voyage was a major success with the ships being found about 11 meters below the remote victorious strait near king william island the discovery has been described as one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of the century as both the hms erebus which was found in 2014 and the hms terror which was found in 2016 were recovered after having last been seen in baffin bay in 1845 yet beyond just the ships incredibly the remains of the sailors were also discovered and despite exposure to oxygen making some of the bodies unsalvageable due to most being found well preserved and almost fossilized in the permafrost ice many were in fair enough condition for themselves to be analyzed for their possible cause of death thus after running extensive tests researchers found that the sailors most likely died of lead poisoning which occurred thanks to lead contaminating the food with the tin cans they ate from regardless despite the incredible misfortune surrounding this discovery it certainly was pretty cool number seven preserved like a statue in march 2011 canadian miner shawn funk made history when he discovered a 110 million year old creature known as a berealo pelta found in an oil and quarry deposit known as the millennium mine in northern alberta canada the barrio pelta took about two long weeks of intensive 12 hour per day labor to uncover and when discovered it was especially notable due to its skin being almost perfectly intact although being underground has given it a black color with okra spots researchers believe that this skin could be the key to uncovering the true color of the dinosaur now to put it into perspective how large this creature was it must first be understood that the boreal pelta was a type of ankylosaur which means that it came from a group of heavyset low-slung tank-like dinos weighing about 1.5 tons and being about 6 meters from head to tail it resided on land and likely would have been fearsome beast to come across and while no one knows for certain exactly how it died given that it was found belly up it's believed that it likely drowned either thanks to a freak wave from a beach or due to a swimming trip gone wrong regardless if you'd like to view this fossil today it can be seen at the royal tyrell museum in alberta canada number six snake eating a dinosaur a dinosaur having dinner is certainly not a sight that paleontologists come across every day but in 1986 that's precisely what occurred in gurjat india that's because it was here that a three and a half meter long fossilized snake known as a sanjay indicus was found eating a freshly hatched sauropod egg it's believed that the snake was raiding the nest due to the hatching of the eggs as its relatively small mouth made it unable to swallow the eggs whole but rather led it to being forced to wrap itself around the eggs waiting for the baby sauropod to emerge interestingly unlike most modern mothers sauropods are not very protective of their eggs and would instead leave them unattended thus allowing the situation to occur in the first place regardless it turns out that neither the snake nor the sauropod led to each other's demise as it was in fact a landslide that buried the creatures in their state for eternity causing the snake to be frozen in time while just about to gorge itself on the half meter long hatchling number five weird evolution in 2018 two dinosaurs found in china made headlines when they ended up exposing a lost chapter in evolutionary history referred to as quote weird animals by professor ona choniere of the university of whitswater and south africa the two fossils found were that of an alvarosaurus the reason why they were considered weird is that due to the alvarosaurus being an animal that while starting out its existence as a traditional carnivore eventually evolved to a creature that primarily feasted on bugs unsurprisingly this transition led to many evolutionary changes for one the dinosaur began to resemble an anteater losing its size growing shorter arms developing a single large claw and losing its teeth however according to the choniere's co-author robert benson from oxford quote the new fossils from china have long arms and show that the alvarosaurus evolved short arms only later in their evolutionary history in species with small body sizes this is quite different to what happens in the classic example of tyrannosaurs which have short arms and giant size unsurprisingly due to the dinosaurs changing appearance there has been controversy over their history where they originated and where they belong on the evolutionary tree however as more fossils of this dinosaur appeared hopefully all of the various researchers will come to a consensus number four fossil fishing when visiting his hometown of tetsuyama japan postdoctoral researcher nubuaki mizumoto discovered a fossil that is unlike any others found to date that's because what he unearthed was not a single specimen but rather an entire school of fish these fish belong to a now extinct species known as epnoterus levatu and lived in the green river formation about 50 million years ago upon his discovery he became intrigued by the potential of collective behavior displayed in the fossil as despite the fossil being frozen in time it depicted the coordination and cooperation that is typical of a school of fish now the first question mizumoto had was whether or not the fish were still in the position they had died in so after partnering with a fish fossil specialist based in japan the two were able to chart the position and heading direction of each individual fish to their amazement the fossilized fish seemed to be following the two cardinal rules of modern fish repulsion from close neighbors and attraction to more distant fish in short it appeared the position of the fish hadn't been random which means that they were still in said position that they had died in this then led to a second and perhaps more interesting question how had these fish died in response lance grande the curator at the field museum and an expert on fish fossils in the green river formation has suggested that the fish may have died on mass by a volcanic eruption or oxygen depleted water perhaps brought upon by a dramatic temperature shift however he remains unconvinced that the fish were in the position that they had died in divergently mismoto and his team have another theory a sudden collapse of a sand dune as this would account for the positioning of the fish in the fossil regardless it's probably best to take their opinions with a grain of salt as mizumoto isn't a paleontologist and grande isn't a geologist thus the truth of the matter is that anything is possible with this fossil number three oil soros in 2011 the oil-rich town of fort mcmurray canada was in for a shock when they found a dinosaur located under its oil sands the discovery was initiated when some local oil rig workers noticed that the rocks they were working on were weirdly shaped and much harder than usual in the end the reason for this was because they were not working on regular rocks but rather atop a fossil filled deposit once examined further the accidental discovery led to the excavation of a nodosaur which was the first ever discovery of this impressive dinosaur and considering that his bones alone came in at a weight of about seven tons this skeleton which is now at display at the royal tyrell museum in drumheller alberta certainly is impressive what's interesting about these skeletons is that complete or near-complete specimens of dinosaurs are extremely rare in addition to this bones will often be flattened or cracked making them as inaccurate representations of what they would truly look like yet this notosaur was unique as it's not only almost completely intact but also has bones that are in near perfect condition this was likely due to the geography of the region about 116 million years ago as the flatness and near-complete water cover of what has become fort mcmurray helped protect the skeleton due to the swamp-like conditions it was this mud when fossilized that helped the bones keep their shape and are what ultimately facilitated this historic discovery interestingly enough the process of simply excavating the bones took a long six years which and when finally completed paleontologists quickly noted that the dinosaur looked more like a dragon than a prehistoric creature this was due to the dinos overall size and scales as the average nodosaur weighed up to 1.4 tons and had a body length of about 5 and a half meters with scales that had a bony protective layer that had a half meter long spikes along it yet ironically enough despite its tough exterior the nodosaur was actually a herbivore as it used its scales to protect itself from being eaten by other dinosaurs number two battle for the dino in june of 2006 in the u.s state of montana a rancher named clayton phipps and his friend mark ettman found a fossil of two dinosaurs that appeared to be fighting discovered in an area that is approximately known as hell's creek it's a place that's covered with gray and okra sandstone shale and clay that dates back to about 66 million years ago during the late cretaceous when the area was a swampy floodplain interestingly enough this area has now become one of the most storied dinosaur fossil sites in the world this self-styled dino cowboy uncovered the fossil when his friend etman told him that he found what appeared to be a pelvic bone breaching the surface upon further investigation the pair realized that their fossil had a rare level of completion and after further excavating these bones with the help of a few friends and fellow fossil hunters the pair was able to identify the fossils as being a triceratops horadus for those who don't know the triceratops was a herbivore beaked dinosaur that became famous for its crested head and large horns however what made this discovery even more interesting is that while digging phipps discovered that the herbivore was attached to either a fossilized theropod similar to a tyrannosaurus rex or a nanotyrannus lenses a rare species whose existence is highly disputed according to a reporter philip pantuso both dinosaurs were extraordinarily well preserved fully articulated with envelopes of skin and possibly mummified internal organs unfortunately these dinosaurs have yet to be fully excavated due to the fact that they're still trapped in their rock matrix as a result we all know that these fossils are at an american museum being carefully extracted and studied due to all these fossils being found in near complete and perfect condition the fossil hunters hope to profit from this prehistoric prize however unfortunately for them u.s law states that landowners are the ones who own the fossils found on their land and that prospectors need their permissions to dig on the land as such due to the pair not actually owning the land they found the fossils on they had to surrender them to their owners yet that didn't stop a legal dispute from arising as the ranch was actually owned by two partners the murrays and the seversons going to court in order to settle the dispute the judge ended up using the precedent from sue the t-rex to award the seversons with ownership of the bones as a result this lucky family was able to earn nearly nine million dollars for their efforts number one tourist fossils while tourists typically go on vacation to have a good time a tourist by the name of erin levy got more than she bargained for when in july of 2020 she discovered a prehistoric fossil according to levy herself quote i went down on the beach hoping to go for a nice long walk at low tide looking for fossils and it caught my eye it was at the base of the cliff and i had an actual trackway sticking out of it i walked over and pulled the rest of it out and thought this is sort of cool finding it just outside of five islands provincial park in nova scotia she soon brought it to the nearby joggins fossil center where researchers determined that this specimen was of footprints and their corresponding trackway created million years ago by a prehistoric salamander and millipede-like amphibian known as an arthral pleura and while the footprints certainly were cool it turns out that the trackways were of higher historical significance as put by matt stimson who's a doctorate student at st mary's university and the assistant curator of geology and paleontology with the new brunswick museum in saint john quote it gives us a lot of good information on how these animals walked and moved we can see changes along the pathway from where it was walking straight to a turn what makes this fossil even more unique is its relatively small size this is because most fossils found in joggins are much larger but stimpson noted that quote this is a juvenile and we don't have many examples of track waves of this size which make it quite unique i've been working on studying these types of trackways these arthropleura footprints from joggins for a long time one of the things with joggins is studies take a long time because fossils slowly erode out of the cliffs and they have to be found and studied you can't just go into the site and excavate and dig out all the specimens something like this pops up you get excited regardless we're sure that this rare find definitely made this a trip of a lifetime for mrs levy that's all we have for you today everyone and thank you all for watching let us know in the comments down below which fossil you thought was the most interesting and if you enjoyed this video don't forget to like subscribe and smash the notification button you

Channel: Top Fives

Views: 108,657

Rating: 4.8292284 out of 5

Keywords: Animals Caught FROZEN in Time

Id: ahk0YitdtFs

Length: 18min 44sec (1124 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 02 2020