It is quite impossible to fathom the idea of 65 million years ago. To truly acknowledge the fact that this planet has been spinning on its own axis around the sun for billions of years is quite stunning. But then to comprehend the idea of literal giant monsters roaming this Earth is an even more incredible thought. Dinosaurs, or what is now thought to be giant featherless birds, ruled this Earth some 60, 70 billion years ago, but now we would like to think that humans rule this Earth.
But what happened back then and who roamed the vast forests, swamps and green lands?
Here are 10 terrifying animals that no longer exist.
The Kaprosuchus. The ‘Boar Crocodile’ or the Kaprosuchus is estimated to be 3.3 meters long with three sets of teeth like the tusks of a crocodile! The Kaprosuchus is essentially a cross between a crocodile and a T-Rex with the tusks of a boar.
To make matters even worse, these large creatures had legs too so they could also run on land. The pairs of teeth were split into two pairs on the top and another one on the lower jaw. The tip of the snout was large and bulky thus indicating to some researches that the ‘Boar-Croc’ used it as a battering ram.
This giant snout was meant to knock down prey and then chomp down on it with its three jaws. This fearsome beast went extinct during the mass extinction nearly 66 million years ago.
The Andrewsarchus. This is a mammal that is a cross between a bear and a velociraptor. Its wide jaws meant that it could pack a powerful punch behind its enormous teeth. Some speculate that this animal could be the largest mammalian predator to have ever lived.
Due to the fact that researchers have only found its skull, it is quite difficult for them to deduce the size of the body with so little information. The Andrewsarchus could potentially be a scavenger, or an animal on the coast that searches for food such as sea turtles, fish and small reptiles or mammals.
Even though its skull was found in a coastal region that we now know as Inner Mongolia in China, it does not mean that it couldn’t have traveled and hunted animals on foot more inland.
The carcharodon megalodon. More commonly known as the megalodon shark, this creature is a giant in itself. It dwarfs the great white sharks of today since it can grow up to 40 to 70 feet! It resides in warm waters and is the largest carnivorous fish in the history of this world!
Paleontologists have speculated that one of its teeth is estimated to be the size of a human! Although there are still many speculations in regards to the megalodon such as its diet, its exact size and what caused it to go extinct, there are still several factors that experts can agree on.
Just like most other sharks, the megalodon is mainly composed of cartilage which makes it harder to completely reconstruct since bone fossilizes much better than cartilage. But scientists can agree that they fed on beasts as big as whales.
No one is quite sure why the megalodon went extinct, some argue the cause was due to ocean temperatures decreasing forcing the sharks to die off, while other members of academia debate that it was due to their prey moving to colder waters to avoid the giant predators.
But there are still some in the public that believe that the megalodon isn’t completely extinct, and that a few of them reside in the dark deep depths of the ocean.
The Pulmonoscorpius. This creature was essentially a magnified scorpion. Its larger size can be attributed to the higher oxygen content in the air during the time that it lived, the Carboniferous period. Being that it is a scorpion, it is almost sure that these animals would have been carnivores.
