W B The ocean has witnessed animals that are frightening because of their appearance, hunting abilities or large size. Therefore, we’ll show you 10 prehistoric monsters that you wouldn’t like to cross paths with.
EDESTUS
This predator lived in the Devonian, a period in which sharks were abundant, between 400 and 300 million years ago. This happened before the dinosaurs – that is a long time ago. Its name comes from the Greek word Edeste, which means “to devour”. The most frightening thing about this animal was that it seemed to have an open scissor in the snout, which is why it is also known as the scissor-teeth shark. In its crooked jaws it had only one row of teeth. Those that were worn away, did not detach, as happens with the rest of the sharks, but were pushed forward by new ones, which made its mouth elongated. It measured, 52.4 feet long, the same as the white shark. Its attack method consisted of swimming at full speed and scratching its prey with its teeth, causing them major injuries, as if it were a saw and then devouring them.
SHASTASAURUS
It is a specie that lived in the Late Triassic, the first period in the dinosaur era. Its remains were found in places as distant as China, Canada or the United States. Its habitat were the Asian and American coasts of the Pacific, which at that time, was the coast of both Laurasia and Gondwana. It was characterized by being quite thin if seen from the side. The largest individuals had a thoracic cage smaller than 23 feet long between the front fins. It didn’t have fins on the tail, a feature that would be later developed by the ichthyosaurs. Its snout was unusually short and lacked strong teeth like the other ichthyosaurs, which is why many scientists assumed that it fed through suction, especially from animals that had no skeleton, such as octopus or squids. Due to its size, it is thought that it could accumulate enough air to reach the depths of the ocean. In the Pardonet formation in British Columbia, Canada, a fossil was found, it that was initially listed as Shonisaurus bone but was later determined to be from a Shastasaurus. It is a member of the Shastasaurus Shikanniensis species, and measured 69 feet, which makes the Shastasaurus the largest marine reptiles in history.
BASILOSAURUS
Its name means king lizard but, contrary to what this means, it is not a reptile but a huge cetacean that measured between 49 and 59 feet long, it was as big as the Megalodon. It lived in the Eocene period between 40 and 35 million years ago, and its remains have been found in the United States, Egypt and Jordan. It is the missing specie between whales and ancient cetaceans, such as the ambulocetus, terrestrial animals with legs similar to hippos, which at a certain moment entered the water and developed fins. A 52-foot basilosaurus only had 14-inch posterior fins with three residual fingers. These limbs were so small that they were absolutely no good for swimming. The front fins, which were also small, seemed to have had a sort of elbow, like today’s seals. It had 70 vertebrae, but unlike modern whales, whose spine has compact bones, theirs were hollow and filled with fluid, which is why it could not stand the weight of water or dive into great depths.
MOSASARUS
Its name means Lizard of the Meuse River, because the first fossil was found in the Maas River in 1764. Of all the species that form this genus, the largest was the Mosasaurus Hoffmani, which was 55.7 feet in length. The mosasaurus lived between 77 and 66 million years ago in Western Europe and North America. It had fingers in its spatula shaped extremities and the tail ended in a fin, similar to a shark. Its body was way more robust than other ichthyosaurus and had the shape of a barrel. To keep its organism intact, the mosasaurus hunted all kinds of marine reptiles, sharks and plesiosaurs. This creature used to swim in dark waters, hiding and waiting for an animal to come to the surface to take a breath. At that moment, it would forcefully attack from below, similar to sharks.
JAEKELOPTERUS
It is the largest known arthropods. It lived in the Early Devonian, in the coastal waters of Estuaries and rivers. Its name comes from Otto Jaekel, the German paleontologist who discovered this species and the Greek word ptero, which means wings. There are two species, Jaekeloptero Howelli, who lived in Wyoming and the Jaekelooptero Rhenaniae, which as its name implies, lived in the current Rhineland, Germany. This last species is really important, its fossil remains indicate that its pincers measured 17.9 inches in length, which has led to establish its total length at 8.5 feet long. This lobster was bigger than a human being … and deadlier. The remains indicate that it had a large number of eyes and that it was quite fast. Some fish fossils have been found with wounds that seem to be typical of this predator.
DUNKLEOSTEUS
It is an extinct fish that lived during the late Devonian, between 382 and 358 million years ago. Its main characteristic was its an armored head that turned it into a slow but powerful swimmer. It reached 32 feet in length, which means it was larger than the great white shark. The Dunkleosteus had a pair of sharp plates in the jaw instead of teeth, similar to a beak. In spite of how heavy this could be, its jaws could open in 20 milliseconds, which is REALLY fast and when it closed, it produced a force equal to 2 tons. Those who thought that this power was enough to cut the flesh and bones of any fish fell short. It is estimated that such strength allowed it to eat animal shields, such as ammonites, other armored fish such as Bothriolepis, and even other Dunkleosteus, because it was a cannibal. Given their slowness, their prey must have been slow or they could have preferred ambush tactics. Many times, Dunkleosteus’ fossil remains have been found next to food boluses made of chewed fish. This indicates that it was common for it to vomit the hard parts of its prey after eating didn’t digest everything it got in its mouth.
HELICOPRION
It was a strange animal that had spiral-shaped teeth that emerged out of its lower jaw. It lived in the oceans around 280 million to 225 million years ago. Its remains have been found in places as far away as China, Australia, the United States and Canada. There have been a lot of teeth found, they’re called whorls, the largest one measures 24 inches, which means that the whole animal must have measured around 39 feet in length. As the animal grew newer teeth that came out of its mouth, the older ones were pushed back and worn out ones into the spiral. One of these spirals of 6.7 inches in diameter was found in the 30’s and had abour 109 teeth, of which 32 were in the first line, 36 in the second and 41 in the third. The teeth in the center of the spiral measured 0.28 inches and the outer ones 1.6 inches. It is still a mystery how it used its whorl, some say it was like an electric saw that unrolled and smashed against fish and others creatures.
LIVYATAN MELVILLEI
It is an extinct cetacean. Its name was taken from the biblical monster Leviathan and the author of Moby Dick, Helman Melville, in whose novel, a group of hunters fight against a whale. It lived between 9.8 and 8.9 million years ago and its remains have been found in Peru. Its total length is estimated between 44 and 57 feet, similar to a modern sperm whale, an animal it resembled; however, it was deadlier. Sperm whales only have teeth in the lower jaw, in the other hand, Livyatan had 22 in the lower jaw and 18 in the upper jaw. These could measure up to 14.2 inches long, were twice as large as those of the megalodon shark. In fact, they are the largest teeth with feeding purposes that have existed on the face of the earth. The teeth of the Livyatan were firmly stuck in the gums, suggesting that it used them to catch its victims, and that they were struggling to detach themselves. It was basically a whale that behaved like a shark, attacking from the bottom up. Due to this, it has been thought that it fed on whales between 22 and 32 feet long. It went extinct due to temperature drops at the end of the Miocene. However, a tooth was found in Australia and it’s attributed to this species that dates back 5 million years ago. If this is true, it would have survived in the Pliocene, although this is yet to be confirmed.
ELASMOSAURUS
It was a sea monster that lived in the Western Interior Sea, an ocean that was in the middle of what is now North America 80 million years ago. It could measure up to 44 feet in length. Its neck alone was 23 feet, it had 72 vertebrae and despite how long it was, the Elasmosaurus was not very flexible, being unable to bend like a snake. In fact, it served more as a rudder for the rest of the body. The elasmosaurus swam behind the fish schools and used its neck to capture them. Its teeth protruded from its mouth and ended up impaling its prey like marshmallows. Once they were captured, they were swallowed and digested with the help of the gastroliths, stones that they swallowed and kept stored in the stomach to processing food.
MEGALODON
The megalodon carcharodon had a length between 49 and 59 feet and a weight between 47 and 59 tons. It lived between 23 and 2.6 million years ago, from the Oligocene to the Pliocene. It looked very similar to a current white shark, although it was way larger. Their teeth measured 7 inches long and had the same serrated edges as the white shark. Therefore, it is thought that its hunting style was the same, it rammed its victims from below. Although, judging by the size of its teeth, the megalodon preferred to attack the areas with bone and if it was a whale, it bit the whale’s tail to immobilize it. In total, it needed between 1322 and 2645 pounds of food a day. With such hunger, it is not surprising that its bite had at least eleven tons of force. It is also known to have eaten turtles, because with tremendous teeth, their shells broke like glass. The megalodon became extinct when the planet’s temperature dropped, its metabolism slowed down and it became harder to hunt, whales became extinct or moved to the north pole. Without the cetaceans, the megalodon had to limit itself to eating small animals or members of its own species, which brought extinction to this creatures.
These were the most impressive sea monsters. If they caught your eye, don’t forget to comment and share. Until next time!
