20 Ancient Creatures That Are Still Alive

it's strange to think that over 99 of about four billion species that evolved on earth are no longer around in the last five centuries around 900 species have gone extinct and yet some creatures seem to outlive everything from a swimming snail that's been around for 500 million years to a platypus dating back about a hundred thousand years here are 20 ancient creatures that are still alive number 20 frilled shark prilled sharks have been around for about 80 million years by experts calculations no one knows what their population numbers are like since they live in depths of 390 to 4 200 feet or so and no one even knows how long they live for but what we do know from fossils is that they may have once lived in shallow water before the dinosaurs were wiped out and started venturing into deeper water to follow prey experts believe they haven't changed much over the last 80 million years and have eel-like bodies with frilly first gills 25 rows of teeth and lengths of up to 6.6 feet long they're commonly found in the atlantic and pacific oceans but are hardly ever seen due to the depths at which they live in fact whenever they're captured they rarely live long because their natural environment is cold and high pressure they have adapted over the years and now thrive in those deeper waters if anything's gonna threaten their population in the future it'll be us scientists believe that our deep water fishing industry could pose a threat although for now the international union for conservation of nature states that frilled sharks are near threatened or least concerned 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 19 oh gariel diverged from crocodilians over 40 million years ago which is around the last time we shared a common ancestor with capuchin and squirrel monkeys so needless to say they've been around a long time gharial are crocodiles with long thin jaws that they use to catch fish males are discernible from females as they have bulbous growths on the tips of their snouts known as gara funnily enough gaara is also the name of a traditional indian pod even though they've been around for tens of millions of years our changing world hasn't suited them well they're classed as critically endangered while they used to live right across the indian subcontinent you'll now only find them in around 5 smaller populations in india and nepal we are actually mostly to blame for their desperate numbers their habitat has been altered throughout the damning of rivers and we've used their nesting and basking land for grazing and agriculture gariel also can't walk well on land so finding other waterways isn't as easy as it might be for other crocodilian critters overfishing may also cause problems for their food supply and local fishermen sometimes hunt them for their gara fat for medicine eggs for food and strangely their penises number 18 komodo dragon komodo dragons are massive carnivorous reptiles that grow up to 10 feet long 330 pounds and live up to 30 years they're classed as the heaviest lizards on earth and have been thriving on lesser sunda islands in indonesia for millions of years although current research suggests their populations are declining with some areas that used to see significant populations of komodo dragons now having none at all even though female komodo dragons are asexual which allows them to reproduce this particular reproduction method only results in suns as a result inter-breeding is pretty common fortunately we're making an effort to steady their population the komodo national park was set up in indonesia in 1980 which is a 700 square mile refuge dedicated to protecting their habitat as well as that of many other species like marine life and the timur deer the park is also dedicated to preventing poaching unfortunately komodo dragons used to be targeted by big game hunters looking for trophies and by people wanting to use their skin and feet to make goods to sell and those poachers are taking a big risk as komodo dragons aren't exactly friendly people have been attacked and killed by them with the death of a 31 year old man as recently as 2009 on komodo island number 17 shoe bill stork i often wonder how some species manage to live as long as they do outliving many others but when i see the shoe bill stork from east central africa i don't wonder that at all there's mention of these birds by ancient egyptians and arabs and when you learn their features and characteristics you start to get a glimpse into perhaps why they've lived as long as they have shoe bill stork stand it up to five feet tall weighing around 12 pounds with an average wingspan of 7.7 feet their size is definitely a talking point but let's not forget why they get their name their bills are huge their hooked bills are generally up to around 12 inches long and 5 inches wide with cutting edges as you can imagine these bills are capable of some serious chopping and crushing power when they descend upon their prey typically they stand motionless for long periods so that their prey doesn't see or hear them then in less than a second they collapse onto their prey bill first and thrust at their victim with their beak and skull fish is their dinner of choice most of the time but they also go for monitor lizards crocodiles frogs rodents water snakes and even birds number 16 back bactrian camel i actually have no questions about why the bactrian camel is still alive after all it's done to survive it well and truly deserves to be here the bactrian camel is likely the ancestor of camelots two humped camels that evolved in north america about 46 million years ago there are only around a thousand today but that's mainly our fault not theirs bactrian camels are so robust they have withstood various droughts and food shortages they are also capable of taking radiation from nuclear weapons testing sites in their stride this might have something to do with the fact that they live in one of the most hostile parts of the world the gobi desert with limited food and water they've had to learn to survive they can drink salty or brackish water without getting sick and the fat stores in their humps let them go many days without food or water when they do find water they're thinking about the future and stock up on huge volumes of it to replenish what their bodies lost you can only find bacteria and camels in northwest china and southwest mongolia but unless we can stop hunting them taking their habitat and using their resources we may not have them there for much longer number 15 echidna echidnas are not only unique in how they live and look but they're unique in how old they are as well who would have thought that such a small creature native to new guinea and australia could have been around in the same form it is today for tens of millions of years echidnas are thought to have evolved up to 50 million years ago from a monotreme they actually used to be aquatic but they have adapted to life on land let's hope sharks don't figure that out as i don't fancy running into a great white wall walking through my local park echidnas are an unusual mammal in the respect that they are spiny one of the oldest surviving species and they lay eggs typically females lay one leathery egg about the size of a grape and store them in pouches on their bellies 10 days later they hatch and drink milk from glands in the mother's pouches echidnas have so many interesting features and some of them may have helped them live for as long as they have for example they have enormous brains for their body size and male economist don't always wait until their lady friends are awake before they made instead they sometimes sneak into the burrows of hibernating females who then wake up pregnant number 14 musk oxen just looking at musk oxen it's not hard to believe they've been around for thousands of years they even look prehistoric their ability to adapt to harsh conditions has pretty much given them the upper hand allowing them to survive when many others haven't musk oxen grow up to about five feet tall 800 pounds and live for up to around 20 years in the wild they spend their lives in the arctic and explore the tundra looking for lichens roots and mosses to eat while winter is challenging for most species musk oxen can use their hooves to dig into the ground and eat the plants underneath in the warmer months of the year they'll eat grasses and arctic flowers as you can probably imagine living in the arctic would be pretty uncomfortable during winter but they have adapted over many thousands of years they have long shaggy hair consisting of guard hairs on the outer layer and a shorter undercoat as insulation this coat falls out during summer they live in groups which protects them from animal threats but not so much from humans we have long since killed them for their meet and hides so they are now protected in siberia norway and alaska where they live on reserves number 13 chambered nautilus it's not hard to be baffled by the chambered nautilus which is pretty much a swimming snail that has tentacles even though it's been around for 500 million years it hasn't changed all that much in that time it's managed to survive some of the worst extinction events in the world even though it has poor vision and is very slow to age and move around scientists believe the reason it has survived so well is that it readily adapts to survive they aren't as easily affected by environmental changes as other species also when they're young hatch from eggs several hundred feet below the surface of deep waters they're basically like smaller versions of their adult forms so their young aren't typically as vulnerable as the young of other species chambered nautilus have incredibly hard shells that provide them with protection and as they are cold-blooded they have control over their metabolism to allow them to survive during some pretty challenging world events of course they do face threats though namely us no laws exist to protect them and many humans take their shells for decoration as a result some awareness groups believe they are becoming incredibly hard to find number 12 babarusa i've never even heard of the babaroosa a wild type of pig and experts believe they've been around for over 35 000 years in fact prehistoric paintings were actually found in caves on the island of sulawesi in india from about 35 400 years ago but i think i can forgive myself for not knowing what the babarusa is because they actually aren't all that well known except of course amongst biologists and wildlife traveler groups they are only found on remote forested islands so they've basically evolved in complete isolation over these years they're known to live on sulawesi and nearby islands living in large herds in what is now a protected area their most notable feature is their tusks which only males have they have two upper canines that form through the skin of the snout then curve back into their forehead their lower canines grow upwards out of all mammals they are the only ones to have canine teeth that grow vertically surprisingly even after research no one really knows what those tusks are for males don't use them to fight or mate so it's presumed they're a form of protection for their eyes and throat during fights today there are less than ten thousand bubbarusses in existence and they're listed as vulnerable as you can probably guess their numbers are due to habitat loss and poaching number 11 white rhinoceros not to bring down the mood or anything but white rhinoceroses descended from the serrata theory on pracox which lived about seven million years ago and we're just years away from seeing the extinction of some of them we're probably going to be the last generation to see a few of the subspecies alive white rhinos are among the largest land mammals at up to six feet and weighing between three thousand and eight thousand pounds but their size is not enough to protect them decades of poaching for their horns have resulted in just two northern white rhinos left both females they receive round-the-clock guarding in the old fajita conservancy in kenya southern white rhinos were thought to already be extinct in the 19th century but dozens of them were found in south africa thanks to over a hundred years of management and protection we've managed to bring their numbers up to about 21 000 in private game reserves and protected areas out of all five rhino species southern white rhinos are the only ones not classed as endangered the majority of them live in kenya south africa namibia and zimbabwe northern white rhinos might be a lost cause but we've still got some time to save the rest after having already survived for so many centuries number 10 jellyfish [Music] if you were to ask any marine creature for directions in the ocean you'd ask the jellyfish they've been around for at least 500 million years and potentially up to 700 million which means they've had plenty of time to map out the water after all they are found all over the world in both surface waters and the deep sea jellyfish which also get called sea jellies are free-swimming marine animals but some actually anchor themselves to the seabed and stay there to eat they use their tentacles covered with stinging cells to capture prey they also use these same tentacles to protect themselves which is probably why they've managed to live for so long compared to other marine creatures their life cycle is incredibly complicated the sexual phase is called medusa and this produces planula larva which disperses widely before becoming sedentary polyp then eventually they become sexually mature the fastest growing stage is the medusa which matures in just a few months then dies after breeding at the polyp stage where they are attached to the seabed they live much longer how absurd number nine horseshoe crab i didn't think there could be many animals alive today that existed before the dinosaurs but the horseshoe crab is here to prove me wrong they live for over 300 million years which means they are older than dinosaurs they also look like pretty prehistoric crabs but they're actually related more closely to spiders and scorpions than crabs these unique little guys have 10 legs they use to walk on the sea floor hard exoskeletons and three sectioned bodies the rounded shape of their head is a bit like a horseshoe hence the name and the largest part of their body has all their biological and nervous organs a large plate protects their heart brain nervous system glands and mouth while their heads protect their eyes they have nine eyes all over their bodies and light receptors near their tails the two largest eyes are quite useful for finding mates while the rest help them notice moonlight changes and movement the middle section of their body is the abdomen which has a ridge down the center and spines on the sides the spines protect the crab then finally the last section this is the tail known as the telson which is pointed and long horseshoe crabs live along the north american coastline in the atlantic ocean and there are also other species in the indian ocean and the pacific ocean number eight coelacanth for many years we didn't know much about coelacanths what we did know just came from fossils as most researchers believe the 90 species of them went extinct about 65 million years ago during the great extinction event but as it turns out we actually have two living species coelacamps do look like normal fish but they really aren't first and foremost they have a rostral organ in their snouts that forms part of their electrosensory system no other living vertebrate has such a feature however that is not all they have a hinge in their skull that lets part of their cranium swing upward to make their mouth gape open wider this too is not common or existent at all in other vertebrates the first living coelacanth was discovered in 1938 and went by the scientific name latimeria chalumnae after that discovery we only thought they existed in the western indian ocean around the commerce islands however in 1997 and 1998 they were found almost 6 000 miles away from the comoros islands in indonesia's northern sulawesi they had genetic differences to the first discovered coelacanth which led researchers to believe the two populations had spent millions of years apart from each other number 7 sea lamprey whenever researchers discover creatures from millions of years ago they're usually pretty excited they want to know how they've lived for so many years and how they have evolved but when it comes to the sea lamprey the research looks a bit different they have an exciting history but they could also be america's first destructive invasive species according to the national ocean service sea lampreys have lived for about 340 million years and haven't really changed in that time even through four huge extinction events lampreys have no scales fins or gill covers and they don't have bones either instead they have cartilage this unique vertebrate species also breathes through seven pairs of small gill openings positioned behind their mouths and eyes perhaps the most obvious feature though is their mouths they have a suction cup mouth in a disc shape with sharp horny teeth they use their mouth and teeth to latch onto fish before rasping away the flesh of the fish with their off tongues before long they're feasting on blood and body fluids consuming about 40 pounds of fish each year even though their numbers are down they are wreaking havoc in places like lake superior lake erie and lake michigan so much so that control measures are in place to stop their upstream movement and save trout perch whitefish and sturgeon populations number six giant freshwater stingray giant freshwater stingrays were first identified in 1852 in indonesia by a dutch ichthyologist called pieter bleeker strangely though this discovery was forgotten about and the stingrays were identified as a new species over a century later in 1990 they are found in the rivers of thailand and the kinabatangan river in malaysia out of all possible places to see them the most common are in rivers with sandy bottoms at depths of up to about 65 feet females are sometimes found in estuaries and researchers believe they give birth in brackish waters for unknown reasons when you compare the giant freshwater stingray to other stingray species they're quite similar they have long tails and large oval shapes and can weigh up to about 1300 pounds while measuring approximately 118 inches long they also have two pelvic fins on each side of their tails a venom gland and flat bodies with mouths on the underside with tiny teeth as we've only recently rediscovered them there's still so much that we don't know for example we can only guess that they develop similarly to other stingray species and we don't know much about their mating systems either most captive breeding programs have been stopped and pregnant females would only give birth to up to two babies in each breeding event number five platypus i love platypuses it's like earth's creator had leftover parts from other animals and decided to throw them all together they have webbed feet a tail like a beaver a duck-billed nose dense waterproof fur and venomous spurs i mean how mismatched can you get it's so confusing that scientists and european naturalists actually believed it was a fake when it was first discovered it's thought that this creature's age has something to do with these many weird wonderful adaptations fossils of the platypus we have today have been found dating back to around a hundred thousand years ago during the quaternary period it would have faced many challenges so maybe all these unique features are what helped it to survive throughout the years today we have a mammal that is just out of this world it lays eggs uses its feet as rudders in the water and has a bill that houses its ear openings it also uses its tail to store fat reserves for a rainy day and has sharp claws to help it burrow on land oh and if that's not quite enough male platypuses have a horny spur on their ankles this connects to a venom glad you'd almost think it was a reptile funnily enough their skeleton does have many similarities to our modern day reptiles number 4 elephant shrew elephant shrews are small mammals related to sea cows aardvarks and elephants with an evolutionary history dating back to about 33.9 million years ago well that's what some research states but more recent studies have shown that the remains of the first elephant shrew found in the wyoming badlands could be 54 million years old but what we know for sure today is that they come from a single family called macro solidity which has 19 living species within it they have long pointed heads trunk-like noses long legs for their size and long scaly tails they also hop along like rabbits and look very rodent-like elephant shrews grow up to about 12 inches long not including the tail and weigh up to about 24 ounces they live in dense forests and open plains and are native to about six countries in africa even though they can breed up to five times a year that doesn't mean there are massive populations of them some species of elephant shrews are experiencing population decreases of up to 30 percent in the last decade due to their fragmented forest homes and fires depending on the species there can be tens of thousands left or as many as a few hundred number three pelican we expect animals to evolve over millions of years i mean just look at how far the human race has come but compare the fossil of a pelican found from around 30 million years ago to a more recent skeleton and you'd have a hard time seeing many differences in 2010 an old pelican beak fossil was found in southeastern france which looked like the seven modern pelican species we have today usually beaks don't appear as fossils so scientists were given quite the treat when most of the pelican's head was found in fine-grained limestone they said it looked just like the modern great white pelican scientists believe the reason there hadn't been much of a change was that the beak had evolved as much as it could it was perfect for flight and eating so there may have been no reason to adapt they may also be slow evolvers which means they couldn't rule out evolutionary changes in the future today and probably like pelicans from all those millions of years ago they use their beaks containing flexible pouches to capture prey in water they will then spit out the water before eating it's quite clever really number two alligator gar alligator garfish are the largest species in the gar family and are also one of the largest freshwater fish in north america their conservation status is of least concern and this is quite surprising given that their fossil records day back to over a hundred million years ago it seems like this fish definitely knows how to thrive alligator gar are brown or olive and are shaped like torpedoes they have broad snouts long sharp teeth and it's thought that they can grow up to 10 feet long most populations of alligator gar exist in the southern portions of the u.s through to mexico with some previous habitats wholly wiped out through destruction culling and unrestricted harvesting and you can't blame people really for a long time they were described as being a trash fish or nuisance species that nobody wanted state and federal governments even had elimination in their sights however in the last few decades we've come to realize that alligator gar are actually quite important for our ecosystem so now there are some protective measures in place for them and they are cultured in some areas for stocking research and consumption number one crocodilians crocodilians don't just look old they are old they've lived through every world-changing event for the last 230 million years and have outlived ice ages dinosaurs and so much more no wonder they're so grumpy today it's crazy to think what they would have been through crocodilians is the name given to crocodiles alligators gharials and caimans they live for decades depending on the species and all of them are carnivores when you see fossils and other evidence of crocodilians from many millions of years ago you may not think they look much different than they do today the truth is we don't know for sure and we're discovering new things all the time that say otherwise for example in 2020 scientists began to wonder if some crocodiles may have walked on two legs rather than the four they used today they found fossil footprints in south korea that pointed to this being the case the size of the tracks and their spacing showed a reptile of up to 12 feet from approximately 106 million years ago which would have been accurate with some modern day crocodiles there's also been evidence of another crocodile ancestor the carnufex carol and insist nailed it moving around on two legs adding more weight to this curious piece of information many animals are on the brink of extinction like the javan rhino and even the mountain gorilla so we can expect some extinction events in our lifetime but some creatures have been around for so many years it's likely they will always be here which animal surprised you the most do you think any of them will go extinct also check out our other cool stuff showing up on screen right now see you next time you

Channel: The Finest

Views: 109,400

Keywords: interesting facts, amazing facts, factsjunkie, lists, sea monsters, ancient creatures, still alive, prehistoric sea creatures, strange animals, recently discovered, oldest animals, frilled shark, nautilus, horseshoe shrimp, sturgeon, coelacanth, horseshoe crab, martialis huereka, cyanobacteria, mammoth, species, immortal animals, oldest shark, ancient, discovery, animals, creature, in the world, dianasore, shark, giant snake, Ancient Creatures, prehistoric creatures, ancient animals

Id: 2ZsIe-_YeDE

Length: 29min 14sec (1754 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 10 2021