1. Jaekelopterus
They were top predators in the Middle Devonian period, around 390 millions years ago. Three words, Giant Sea Scorpion. That’s right, this 8 foot long arthropod lived in the water and had pincher claws. Frankly, all of the eurypterids are scary as hell and this entire post could be exclusively about how terrifying these things look. Many of them look eerily similar to the face huggers from the Alien movie franchise; they are nightmare fuel. Jaekelopterus had segmented bodies with multiple specialized limbs, some with spikes. They had spring loaded claws to snatch up fish as they passed by, with the largest having an 18 inch spiked claw. Smaller sea scorpions are known to have crawled ashore to mate and even shed their outer skin. Imagine finding the molt of one of these monsters on the shore just before going swimming. Already with a sense of dread and paranoia, you distance yourself from the shore…and then you see a shadow in the murky waters.
2. Helicoprion
The mystery of this bizarre fish starts with a weird fossil and numerous attempts to figure out what it was and how to classify it. Helicoprion puzzled paleontologists and ichthyologists for over a century. The only remains of this creature, up until 2013, were from a fossilized whorl of teeth. While most scientists agreed that the teeth belonged to the lower jaw, that didn’t prevent the presumed location of the teeth from migrating around the body in sometimes fanciful arrangements that can be seen in numerous illustrations and reconstructions. With the later discovery of some portions of a jaw, the location of its buzzsaw-like teeth were finally determined to fill the lower jaw. Strangely, there were no upper teeth; so this creature could disgustingly gum and bite you at the same time. The jaw would close, rotating the teeth backwards, much like a circular saw blade. It probably fed on the soft bodies of squid and other cephalopods. The whorl of teeth was formed as they continuously grew outwards, creating a spiral as it aged; the teeth at the beginning of the whorl being small and gradually increasing in size toward the end. Another fish with an equally odd and terrifying face, Edestus, had offset scissor like jaws that protrude out of its face.This isn’t actually a member of the shark family – sharks have pretty much remained the same for the past 400 million years. The helicoprion was a survivor – having lived through the Carboniferous period, the Permian period, and even the largest extinction event in history (where 90% of life was wiped out), and went extinct in the early Triassic period.
3. Fasolasuchus
This monstrous 33 ft cousin of crocodiles is one of the largest non-dinosaur carnivores to have ever lived. It’s hard to imagine anything hunting a dinosaur, but these were the fellas to do it. Fasolasuchus is t-rex Triassic, it can reach 10 meters of long.Il can attack large prey like the giant prosaupode lessemsaurus. Not being quick it hunts its prey by ambush. It is the tyrant of the Triassic!
4. Kelenken
The Kelenken was a species of giant flightless predatory birds of the extinct family phorusrhacid, or "terror birds" that lived in the Middle Miocene, some 15 million years ago, in Argentina. It is closely related to the Cariamids. Kelenken was the top predator of its area and hunted other predators too. Kelenken, rather than flying, it ran fast, running up to 35 mph (56.3 kph). With a skull 71.6 cm (28.2 inches) long, it had the largest head of any known bird. It is the largest species of phorusrhacid. Phorosrachids ruled South America some 15 million years ago. Dinosaurs had all died out, and these guys were the new thing about town. They moved on two legs, they were extremely agile, and they could have beaks as long as 18 inches.
5. Therizinosaurus
The killer claws of raptors are nothing compared to those of the therizinosaurus. The 33 ft animals had claws as long as 3 ft. Despite this, the animal was actually mostly herbivorous, so those claws were used for weeding more than anything. Still badass. Therizinosaurus is a genus of very large therizinosaurid dinosaurs that lived during the Late Cretaceous period in what is now Asia. It contains a single species, Therizinosaurus cheloniformis, known from the fossiliferous Nemegt Formation. The first remains of Therizinosaurus were found in 1948 by a Mongolian field expedition in the Gobi Desert and later described by Evgeny Maleev in 1954. The genus is only known from a few bones, including gigantic manual unguals (claw bones), from which it gets its name, and additional findings comprising fore and hindlimb elements that were discovered from the 1960s through the 1980s.
Therizinosaurus was a colossal therizinosaurid that could grow up to 9–10 m (30–33 ft) long and 4–5 m (13–16 ft) tall, and weigh possibly over 5 t (5.5 short tons). Like other therizinosaurids, it would have been a slow-moving, long-necked, high browser equipped with a rhamphotheca (horny beak) and a wide torso for food processing. Its forelimbs were particularly robust and had three fingers that bore unguals which, unlike other relatives, were very stiffened, elongated, and only had significant curvatures at the tips. Therizinosaurus had the longest known manual unguals of any land animal, reaching above 50 cm (20 in) in length. Its hindlimbs ended in four functionally weight-bearing toes differing from other theropod groups in which the first toe was reduced to a dewclaw and also resembling the very distantly related sauropodomorphs.
6. Sauroniops
These giants stood tall at a whopping 42 ft. They lived in Morocco around 100 million years ago, and they’re absolutely terrifying!
7. Deinosuchus
Like its cousin the fasolasuchus, the deinosuchus were crocodiles who hunted dinosaurs. What a world. 42 ft long and always ready to strike, the Texas natives were around, kicking ass, around 80 million years ago.
8. Dunkleosteus
This 33 foot long armored fish from the Devonian era lacked teeth, but its jaw contained razor sharp protrusions of bone that it could use to pierce and cut through its prey. These bones grew continuously and as they did, the edges rubbed together with those of the opposing jaw, acting like self sharpening shears. This would ensure the “fangs” were always ready to chomp into armored prey like arthropods, ammonites and other fish. This four ton monster fish patrolled inshore waters and could snatch prey up by opening and closing its jaws within 50-60 milliseconds.The dunkleosteus, with its guillotine-like mouth actually had no teeth. Those blades you see were actually a part of their skull. They were over 30 ft, and hunted sharks for about 20 million years.
9. Livyatan
This extinct whale was named both for the monstrous sea creature Leviathan from the old-testament that “…when he rises up, the mighty are terrified; they retreat before his thrashing” and for Herman Melville, the author of the novel Moby Dick, a tale of an accursed white whale that terrorized Captain Ahab and eventually brought about his death and the destruction of his ship and crew. This is an amazing namesake to live up to. Livyatan melvillei is related to modern sperm whales like Moby Dick and lived during the Miocene epoch. It was 44-57 feet long and had a 10 foot long skull that housed forty 14.5" long teeth. These are the longest teeth used for feeding known from any animal, extinct or alive. They fed on large prey at the surface of the water including other whales. This whale likely became so large because it was competing directly with megalodon for food. Named after Leviathan, these enormous whales were fearsome shark hunters. With teeth up to 1 ft long they were ruthless, unstoppable beasts. They were an outrageous 57 ft long. They conquered the megalodons, who ruled the sea for millions of years. They were badass.
10. Mosasaurus
Mosasaurus is a species of large marine reptile from the Late Cretaceous period, around 83-66 million years ago. One of the largest of its genus, measuring nearly 18 meters long and weighing 10 tons, Mosasaurus gave its name to a group of carnivorous marine lizards - the Mosasaurs. The Late Cretaceous period may very well have been the most dangerous for ocean dwellers, and its precisely because of these guys. Mosasaurus was one of the largest aquatic predators that had ever evolved, at over 60 ft long. They didn’t just hunt sharks, they hunted pretty much anything they could lock their jaws on (and they could pretty much lock their jaws on anything)
11. Deinotherium
These are the largest prehistoric relative of modern-day elephants. They arrived in the Middle Miocene and survived until the Early Pleistocene, changing very little along the way. Their remains were discovered at major hominid excavation sites near Lake Turkana, Kenya. They’re also known as “hoe tuskers”.
12. Epidexipteryx
These are the earliest known representation of ornamental feathers in the fossil record. They were a genus of small paravian dinosaurs.
13. Hallucigenia
These were less than 3 millimeters long, and had bulbous round heads connected to their cylindrical trunk. It was initially thought to walk on its spines, but it was later discovered that its tentacles were feet.
14. Tanystropheus
Tanystropheus is the Greek word for “long necked one”. They were 20 feet long, with a narrow neck that was often longer than its body and neck combined. They emerged in the Middle Triassic period.
15. Opabinia
These are one of the most bizarre creatures to have ever existed. They had 30 legs, 30 flippers, a nose like an elephant’s trunk, and a lobster-like claw. There were no signs that they had jaws, so they presumably fed on small, soft creatures.
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