15 Nightmarish Animals You Will Be Happy Are Extinct

monsters are usually mythical creatures found in books but science tells us a story of real ones that thankfully no longer roam the earth imagine a world ruled by gigantic apex predators all perfectly equipped to kill and eat you in the water in the sky and on firm land from the largest carnivorous bird to have ever existed to a deadly gigantic marine lizard here are 15 nightmarish animals you will be happy are extinct number 15 plesiosaur marine reptile plesiosaurs are ancient creatures that lived about 215 million years ago they were long-necked massive animals that grew up to 43 feet long and they had a mouth full of long sharp razor-like teeth their necks were so extremely long they measured half their body's length they had at least 76 vertebrae which is 10 times more than the number we have in our necks they were excellent swimmers reaching speeds of more than 10 kilometers per hour that's quite fast for such a huge creature plesiosaurs were marine animals but they didn't have gills which means they were air breathers and they probably never dove too far down into the water so that they would be able to surface often enough to get some oxygen these colossal monsters still fuel stories today sowing fascination all over the world and if you look closely they look exactly like the drawings of the loch ness monster i bet that holidays at the beach would be very different if these guys were still alive today before we go on like this video smash the subscribe button and click the notification bell right now or this centipede will crawl on your face when you're sleeping [Music] number 14. helicoprion shark this underwater prehistoric monster had a very deadly and curious weapon for hunting prey it literally had an organic saw blade built into its skull hence the nickname they've given it the buzzsaw shark these titanic marine monsters were solely made and designed to eat meat and they had more than 125 teeth in their mouths but interestingly very little wear has been found in the helicoprion sharks fossils which indicates that they ate boneless prey like squids or octopus but on top of having a unique and bizarre spiral set of teeth the helicoprion could stretch for more than 12 meters in length making him the biggest marine animal of that time which was roughly between 290 to 250 million years ago the particular spiral set of teeth comes from the inability of this animal to shed its teeth so basically when new ones grew the other ones just moved to the back of its jaws creating the curious and deadly spiral just imagine a gigantic saw blade coming at you attached to a colossal shark the stuff in nightmares number 13 titana boa the magnificent titanoboa live during the paleocene epoch which means it roamed this earth some 66 million to 56 million years ago and for now if there aren't any more chilling discoveries it is considered to be the largest known member of the sub-order serpents in other words the titanoboa is the biggest snake to have ever existed scientists and paleontologists have estimated that this colossal monster could grow up to almost 43 feet in length which is the length of a school bus and the average weight for an adult would have been around 1.25 tons these prehistoric giant snakes were related to modern-day anacondas and boas and thank god the titanoboas living relatives are much much smaller they were natives of what is today colombia and the findings of the fossils there completely changed our preconception of how big prehistoric snakes could be i'm sure that colombian people are very happy these mega monsters don't exist anymore titanoboas were so big it's difficult to assess how they could hunt for prey scientists think that it would stay very still with its mouth wide open until an unfortunate animal would wander right into their mouth and then it would eat it at its leisure number 12. the dunkliostius between 360 million to 380 million years ago it was the age of fish on this earth of ours which was called the late devonian period there were still no big land animals and all the monsters didn't roam the earth they swam the oceans and the largest of all the marine predators was the dunkleosteus it could grow up to 20 feet long and weigh an average of a ton this was a sea monster like no other forget about cthulhu this fish could bring your blood to a freeze in a second it had a very thick armor for skin and instead of teeth it had sharp bones sticking out of its skull this colossal fish could eat sharks for breakfast it is believed to have been the largest predatory fish to have ever existed and they evidently unquestionably ruled the oceans they were so powerful they had no natural predators they were at the summit of the food chain these things could even bring down a modern-day naval ship without any effort let's all be thankful that they went extinct even before the dinosaur era number 11 sarcosicus imagine a crocodile that's 30 feet long and weighs more than 4 metric tons it was the sarcosicus the killer croc of the cretaceous era it is the largest crocodile ever known to have lived like modern-day crocs the sarcosuchus was a highly skilled predator both inland and water and they lived in what is today africa and south america when the sahara desert was tropical and lush and it was ruled by these colossal reptiles the region used to be riddled with rivers as well which offered the sarcosuchus a perfect hidden place to wait for their prey if today crossing the mighty desert is hard enough imagine during the cretaceous era it would have been hands down suicidal they fed on whatever was in front of them just like modern day crocs except the prey of the sarcosuchus were a lot bigger and stronger its bite force was so extremely powerful it could cut through dinosaur bone like hot butter nothing that faced this mighty croc in battle would survive to tell the story they were the kings of the territory number 10 basilosaurus while its name may make it sound like a cross between a dinosaur and one of john cleese's most famous characters the basilosaurus was actually a terrifying beast far from a wanky impotent manager of a british hotel their name actually means king lizard originally thought to be a lizard-like beast more recent studies of their colossal skeletons have revealed that they were probably a sea creature measuring up to 66 feet in length they are one of the largest known animals to have existed between the cretaceous paleogene extinction event around about 15 million years ago now that's big they had huge jaws lined with sharp fangs that could rip you or i to shreds in a single chomp [Music] it should go without saying they were very much a carnivore veganism would not have flown with these guys this is one of the reasons why they were initially mistaken for a reptile it's not common for a whale-like animal to be this vicious looking the locations they were known to inhabit included the nearby waters of pakistan egypt and the united states it should go without saying but you wouldn't want to cross paths with one of these things when going for a swim they make the shark from jaws look like a kitten number nine t-rex the famous and mighty tyrannosaurus rex needs no introduction as its name suggests it is the tyrant king of the lizards the t-rex could grow up to 40 feet in length and they were 13 feet tall at the hips they were 14 metric tons in weight and it's believed to be amongst the biggest land predators of all time and if that's not scary enough scientists think the t-rex might have had the strongest bite force amongst all terrestrial animals to have ever existed for the longest time scientists debated if the t-rex was an apex predator or simply a pure scavenger but nowadays they seem to agree on the fact it was both that's called an opportunistic feeder which means they were equipped to hunt down prey when needed and also scavenge on dead animals when the opportunity showed but one thing is for sure the t-rex wasn't a particularly shy species of dinosaur they were aggressive and territorial so whatever other creature that had the misfortune of entering their domain would have encountered a very violent greeting and probably wouldn't have survived for long imagine how the world would look today if there were still these colossal monsters roaming free number eight meganyura this gigantic dragonfly lived during the late cretaceous period approximately 300 million years ago they were so big the wingspan of the mega new era could reach lengths of over 28 inches and its weight is estimated to have been between 100 and 150 grams making it one of the largest known flying insect species paleontologists say that such large insects were possible at that time because of the extremely high quantities of oxygen that were in the planet's atmosphere which made everything much bigger including plants the mega neuro is a predatory and carnivorous insect and its diet consisted mainly of other large insects they had over-enlarged eyes but if you consider its mind-blowing size i don't think us humans would have been safe from them just imagine a huge horde of mega neura flying around you trying to get a bite the stuff and nightmares thankfully nowadays because of the lower levels of oxygen and because of the presence of predatory birds insects cannot grow to such sizes anymore so we're safe from having to cohabitate with them number seven anomalocaris it took an army of paleontologists and an entire century to figure out the shape of the anomalocaris for a long time they thought it was an ancient jellyfish and then when new discoveries were flying in they thought it to be a giant killer shrimp but we know today neither are true the anomalocaris is rather a sea creature that roamed the cambrian sea and it was on average two feet long making it the largest creature of the cambrian period it's also the first known predator of our planet's history because of the bizarre layout of its circular jaws it was able to trap and literally guillotine its prey and it left a curious w-shaped bite on its victims scientists think the anomalocaris was an excellent swimmer it was propelled by 14 overlapping flaps on its side the anomalocaris had such an effective design that its rain flourished for nearly 20 million years that's a hundred times longer than the entire history of homo sapiens in other words if they still existed there wouldn't be much fish in the ocean for us to enjoy number six the giant short-faced bear the giant short-faced bear ruled the north american continent and it was a prehistoric giant bear that lived in what today is the north american continent about 10 000 years ago in what is known today as the infamous ice age on all fours it was a staggering six feet tall that's twice the size of a modern day grizzly you might think that the short-faced bear must have been a slow runner given its amazing size but you would be wrong scientists think they were very fast even faster than a horse it was such a powerful creature it could kill its prey with just a single blow at the time of this gigantic bear's rule north america looked like the serengeti looks today it was the law of the jungle e or be eaten and it was the indisputable king the short-faced bear was the largest land carnivorous creature since the mighty dinosaurs scientists think that no creature on this earth existed that the bear couldn't kill even the saber-tooth cat can you imagine if these monster bears still existed today number five the gigantopithecus the gigantopithecus is the gigantic ancestor of the living orangutan in other words it was a real-life king kong and it lived some 2 million to 300 000 years ago they inhabited what today is southern china when they first discovered some gigantopithecus bones they thought they might have belonged to giant human ancestors but it was later established that they were in fact apes they could grow to be three meters and weigh up to 300 kilograms which means the gigantopithecus is the largest hominid in the world that we know of studies suggest they might have preferred the grasslands to live in and their social and feeding habits probably looked a lot like those of the living orangutans meaning they would have lived in large socially complex groups if they still existed today they would be a force to be reckoned with they weren't predators but without a doubt they were extremely strong and capable of defending themselves if apes in general are in average five to ten times stronger than a grown man imagine the strength the gigantopithecus might have had number four the stetho canthus this giant ancient predator is an extinct genus of shark that lived in the early carboniferous epoch some 360 million years ago just like modern-day sharks they had huge sharp teeth and wide mouths and they were also excellent and scarily fast swimmers they looked a lot like a great white except their dorsal fin had the odd shape of an ironing board and it was covered in rough scales the head of the animal was also covered in the same type of scales but only male specimens presented such an odd appearance which indicates it probably had a role to play during mating season they mainly fed on smaller fish cephalopods and perhaps even trilobites the stethocanthus wasn't the biggest predator in the oceans it was a maximum of 3 feet long and 20 or so pounds but as soon as the first genus of sharks appeared they instantly became apex predators and they have survived for over 410 million years at the top of the food chain and that is extremely impressive number three argentavis the argentavis magnificence or the giant territorn was the biggest bird to have ever flown the skies of our planet as its name suggests it lived in what is today argentina during the late miocene period some six million years ago these birds were so extraordinarily massive their wingspan was of six meters or more and its weight is estimated at around 70 kilograms it's important to note that the argentavis might have been quite larger than we think and paleontologists are still looking for more fossils they are closely related to modern day andean condors and like them they were not likely predators but rather scavengers these true giants of the ancient skies were so large they probably didn't have any natural predators also backed by the fact they could fly just imagine its huge shadow on the ground as it flew over the south american plains magnificent they also had very strong legs with large feet which suggests they were agile walkers as well but they could fly quite fast relying on warm air streams to take them off the ground number two forest racetoday these birds were so big and powerful they've been dubbed terror birds they were a large carnivorous flightless bird and they were the largest species of apex predator in modern day south america during the cenozoic era some 62 to 1.8 million years ago they had various heights some were over three feet tall and the biggest ones could reach up to nine feet 10 inches they had feet like a t-rex and a hooked beak that could easily sever the spinal cord of a horse with only one blow these birds were ferocious intelligent and very very strong it's believed that they went extinct around the time of the arrival of human beings to the americas they would literally stab their prey with their pickaxe-like beak or use its powerful clawed feet to rip through skin and bones it's believed that terror birds could have possibly hunted prey larger than themselves they could also throw their victims on a hard surface over and over to completely destroy the skull and bones of the prey so if you live in south america i bet you're happy these huge predators don't exist anymore number one the megalodon if you've ever seen one of the films of the jaws saga you know that being a little scared of a shark is a healthy thing but imagine if today existed an 18 meter shark which is three times bigger than the biggest great white shark ever recorded and also with 18 centimeter teeth sharp as a razor well they existed and they are called megalodon which literally means big tooth they lived 20 million years ago and they went extinct 3.6 million years ago that means they ruled the oceans for a very long time the megalodon is the largest shark to have ever lived they ate whales and also large fish because it was such a big creature they needed to eat a lot or simply very large prey and if you want to eat a humpback whale you need to have a very big jaw and the megalodons is estimated to have been from 2.7 to 3.4 meters wide that's big enough to have easily swallowed two adult people whole side by side in one bite they had 276 large teeth and they had one of the strongest bite forces of any animal to have ever lived on the earth that means the megalodon is one of the most powerful predators ever as you can see the world used to be a lot scarier and animals were hands down terrifying knowing all this if scientists found a way to bring back ancient creatures and dinosaurs would you be happy about it also check out our other cool stuff showing up on screen right now see you next time

Channel: The Finest

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Keywords: animals, extinct, extinct animals, scariest animals, nightmarish animals, scary animals, prehistoric creatures, extinction, scary extinct animals, extinct creatures, nightmarish, nightmare, prehistoric animals, recently extinct animals, dangerous animals, giant animal, prehistoric, endangered species, species, endangered animals, ancient animals, discovered, rarest animals, extinct species, still alive, unique animals, rediscovered animals, rediscovered species, weird animals

Id: z1poGj_9Lq0

Length: 21min 17sec (1277 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 16 2021