An unimaginable event occurred about 251 million years ago, which significantly influenced subsequent eras. The name given by scientists to this event is the Permian-Tertiary extinction, or Great Extinction.
It became the formative boundary between two geological periods - the Permian and Triassic, or, in other words, between the Paleozoic and Mesozoic. It took a little time for most marine and terrestrial species to cease to exist.
These events contributed to the formation of a group of archosaurs on land (the most prominent representatives are dinosaurs) and the so-called. " sea dinosaurs».
Because It would be incorrect to call dinosaurs marine; we put such a phrase as “sea dinosaurs” in quotation marks and ask you to be lenient towards such an “amateurish” definition later in the article (editor’s note).
Marine reptiles inhabited the aquatic territories of the Mesozoic along with land dinosaurs. They also disappeared at the same time - about 65.5 million years ago. The cause was the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction.
In this article we would like to introduce you to a selection of the 10 most striking and ferocious representatives of “sea dinosaurs”.
Shastasaurus is a genus of “dinosaurs” that existed more than 200 million years ago – the end of the Triassic period. According to scientists, their habitat was the territory of modern North America and China.
The remains of Shastasaurs have been found in California, British Columbia and the Chinese province of Guizhou.
Shastasaurus belongs to the ichthyosaurs - marine predators similar to modern dolphins. Being the largest reptile in water, individuals could grow to unimaginable sizes: body length - 21 meters, weight - 20 tons.
But despite large sizes, Shastasaurs were not exactly fearsome predators. They ate by sucking and ate mainly fish.
Dakosaurus are saltwater crocodiles that lived more than 100.5 million years ago: Late Jurassic - Early Cretaceous.
The first remains were discovered in Germany, and later their habitat expanded from England to Russia and Argentina.
Dakosaurs were large, carnivorous animals. The maximum length of the body, reptilian and fish-like at the same time, did not exceed 6 meters.
Scientists who have studied the structure of the teeth of this species believe that the dracosaurus was the main predator during its period of residence.
Dracosaurs hunted exclusively for large prey.
Thalassomedon are “dinosaurs” belonging to the pliosaur group. Translated from Greek - “lord of the sea.” They lived 95 million years ago in the territory of the North. America.
The body length reached 12.5 meters. Huge flippers, which allowed him to swim at incredible speeds, could grow up to 2 meters. The size of the skull was 47 cm, and the teeth were approximately 5 cm. The main diet was fish.
The dominance of these predators remained until the late Cretaceous period, and ceased only with the advent of mosasaurs.
Nothosaurus are “sea lizards” that existed during the Triassic period - about 240-210 million years ago. They were found in Russia, Israel, China, North Africa.
Scientists believe that nothosaurs are relatives of pliosaurs, another type of deep-sea predator.
Nothosaurs were extremely aggressive predators, and their body reached a length of up to 4 m. The limbs were webbed. There were 5 long fingers, intended for both movement on land and swimming.
The teeth of predators were sharp, directed outward. Most likely, nothosaurs ate fish and squid. It is believed that they attacked from ambush, using their sleek, reptilian physique to stealthily approach the food, thereby catching it by surprise.
A complete skeleton of Nothosaurus is in the Natural History Museum, Berlin.
Sixth place on our list of “sea dinosaurs” is Tylosaurus.
Tylosaurus is a species of mosasaurus. A large predatory “lizard” that lived in the oceans 88-78 million years ago - the end of the Cretaceous period.
Huge Tylosaurs reached 15 meters in length, thus being the apex predators of their time.
The diet of tylosaurs was varied: fish, large predatory sharks, small mosasaurs, plesiosaurs, and waterfowl.
Thalattoarchon is a marine reptile that existed during the Triassic period - 245 million years ago.
The first fossils discovered in Nevada in 2010 gave scientists new insights into the ecosystem's rapid recovery after the Great Dying.
The found skeleton - part of the skull, spine, pelvic bones, part of the hind fins - was the size of a school bus: about 9 m in length.
Thalattoarchon was an apex predator, growing up to 8.5 m.
Tanystropheus are lizard-like reptiles that existed 230 - 215 million years ago - the Middle Triassic period.
Tanystropheus grew up to 6 meters in length, had a 3.5-meter elongated and mobile neck.
They were not exclusively aquatic inhabitants: most likely, they could lead both an aquatic and semi-aquatic lifestyle, hunting near the shore. Tanystropheus were predators that ate fish and cephalopods.
Liopleurodon are large carnivorous marine reptiles. They lived about 165-155 million years ago - the boundary of the Middle and Late Jurassic period.
Typical dimensions of Liopleurodon are 5-7 meters in length, weight - 1-1.7 tons. It is believed that the most famous major representative was more than 10 meters long.
Scientists believe that the jaws of these reptiles reached 3 m.
During its period, Liopleurodon was considered an apex predator, dominating the food chain.
They hunted from ambush. They fed on cephalopods, ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, sharks and other large animals.
Mosasaurus - reptiles of the late Cretaceous period - 70-65 million years ago. Habitat: the territory of modern Western Europe and North America.
The first remains were discovered in 1764 near the Meuse River.
Appearance Mosasaurus is a mixture of a whale, a fish and a crocodile. There were hundreds of sharp teeth.
They preferred to eat fish, cephalopods, turtles and ammonites.
Research by scientists suggests that mosasaurs may be distant relatives of modern monitor lizards and iguanas.
The first place is rightfully occupied by the prehistoric shark, considered a truly terrible creature.
Carcharocles lived 28.1-3 million ago - the Cenozoic era.
This is one of the largest predators in the history of marine life. It is considered the ancestor of the great white shark - the most terrible and powerful predator today.
The body length reached up to 20 m, and the weight reached 60 tons.
Megalodons hunted cetaceans and other large aquatic animals.
Interesting fact is that some cryptozoologists believe that this predator could have survived to the present day. But, fortunately, apart from the huge 15-centimeter teeth found, there is no other evidence.
10. Shastasaurus(Shastasaurus)
Ichthyosaurs were marine predators that looked like modern dolphins and could reach enormous sizes and lived during the Triassic period about 200 million years ago.
Shastasaurus, largest species The largest marine reptile ever found was an ichthyosaur that could grow to more than 20 meters. It was much longer than most other predators. But one of the largest creatures to ever swim the sea was not exactly a fearsome predator; Shastasaurus fed by suction, and ate mainly fish.
9. Dakosaurus(Dakosaurus)
Dacosaurus was first discovered in Germany, and with its strangely reptilian yet fish-like body, it was one of the main predators in the sea during the Jurassic period.
His fossil remains were found over a very wide area - they were found everywhere, from England to Russia to Argentina. Although it is usually compared to modern crocodiles, Dakosaurus could reach 5 meters in length. Its unique teeth led scientists to believe it was a top predator during its terrible reign.
8. Thalassomedon(Thalassomedon)
Thalassomedon belonged to the Pliosaur group, and its name is translated from Greek as “Lord of the Sea” - and for good reason. Thalassomedons were huge predators, reaching up to 12 meters in length.
It had nearly 2 meter long flippers, allowing it to swim in the depths with deadly efficiency. Its reign as a predator lasted until the late Cretaceous period, until it finally came to an end when new, larger predators such as Mosasaurs appeared in the sea.
7. Nothosaurus(Nothosaurus)
Nothosaurs, reaching a length of only 4 meters, were aggressive predators. They were armed mouth full sharp, outwardly oriented teeth, indicating that their diet consisted of squid and fish. It is believed that Nothosaurus were primarily ambush predators. They used their sleek, reptilian physique to sneak up on their prey and surprise it when attacking.
It is believed that Nothosaurus were relatives of pliosaurs, another type of deep sea predator. Evidence obtained from fossil remains suggests that they lived during the Triassic period about 200 million years ago.
6. Tylosaurus(Tylosaurus)
Tylosaurus belonged to the Mosasaurus species. It was huge in size, reaching more than 15 meters in length.
Tylosaurus was a meat eater with a very varied diet. Traces of fish, sharks, smaller mosasaurs, plesiosaurs, and even some flightless birds have been found in their stomachs. They lived at the end of the Cretaceous period in a sea that spanned what is now North America, where they sat tightly at the top of the marine food chain for several million years.
5. Thalattoarchon(Thalatoarchon saurophagis)
Only recently discovered, Thalattoarchon was the size of a school bus, reaching almost 9 meters in length. This is an early species of ichthyosaur that lived during the Triassic period, 244 million years ago. Due to the fact that they appeared shortly after the Permian extinction (the largest mass extinction on Earth, when scientists believe 95% marine flora and fauna were destroyed), its discovery gives scientists a new look at the rapid recovery of the ecosystem.
4. Tanystropheus(Tanystropheus)
Although Tanystrophey was not strictly sea creature, its diet consisted mainly of fish, and scientists believe that it spent most of its time in the water. Tanystropheus was a reptile that could reach 6 meters in length and is believed to have lived during the Triassic period about 215 million years ago.
3. Liopleurodon(Liopleurodon)
Liopleurodon was a marine reptile that reached more than 6 meters in length. It primarily lived in the seas that covered Europe during the Jurassic period, and was one of the top predators of its time. Its jaws alone are believed to have reached more than 3 meters - approximately the distance from floor to ceiling.
With such huge teeth, it is not difficult to understand why Liopleurodon dominated the food chain.
2. Mosasaurus(Mosasaurus)
If Liopleurodon was huge, then Mosasaurus was colossal.
Evidence obtained from fossil remains suggests that Mosasaurus could reach up to 15 meters in length, making it one of the largest marine predators of the Cretaceous period. The Mosasaurus's head was similar to that of a crocodile, and was armed with hundreds of razor-sharp teeth that could kill even the most heavily armored opponents.
1. Megalodon(Megalodon)
One of the largest predators in marine history and one of the largest sharks ever recorded, Megalodons were incredibly fearsome creatures.
Megalodons prowled the depths of the oceans during the Cenozoic era, 28 to 1.5 million years ago, and were a much larger version of the great white shark, the most feared and powerful predator in the oceans today. But while the maximum length that modern great white sharks can reach is 6 meters, Megalodons could grow up to 20 meters in length, which means they were larger than a school bus!
For a whole century, Russian dinosaurs played hide and seek with scientists. Who won this exciting game?
“Russian dinosaurs, like the snakes of Ireland, are remarkable only because they are not there,” said American paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh. 120 years ago he came to Russian Empire and was surprised to learn that not a single dinosaur bone had been found in our country. That was incredible. Were there really no Mesozoic giants in the largest country in the world?
Russian scientists have had no luck with dinosaurs. These animals reigned on the planet in the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, when half of the current territory of Russia was covered by shallow seas. Herds of lizards roamed inland. But their bones were not preserved - they ended up in the area of sedimentation, from where sand and clay were dragged into the seas to the burial sites. The bones arrived there ground into dust.
Occasionally, conditions on land developed that were suitable for preserving remains: the dinosaur drowned in a swamp or lake, or suffocated in layers of volcanic ash. But such burials were thoroughly destroyed over the past millions of years - glaciers passed through Russia, cutting away bedrock, and then melted glacial waters began to erode and break the fossilized bones.
Compared to the dinosaur cemeteries of Asia and America, where thousands of bones were dug up, this looked downright meager: in Russia, only one single bone turned out to be dinosaur.But this is not even the main reason for the failures that scientists have had to endure. Everything that miraculously survived is today covered with forests, fields and inaccessible for study. Unlike the USA, Canada and China, Russia is unlucky: we do not have badlands - huge desert areas cut by gorges and canyons. All preserved bones of Russian dinosaurs lie deep underground and are very difficult to obtain.
Occasionally, fossil remains are found in quarries, mines, and along the banks of rivers and streams. Great luck, if they are noticed in time and handed over to scientists. But it was luck that was missing for a long time. IN late XIX centuries, fragments of bones that could pass for dinosaurs were occasionally brought to Russian museums. Strange ribs were found in the gravel used to pave the Kursk road. A piece of bone was delivered from Volyn-Podolia. An unusual vertebra was unearthed in the Southern Urals. What was accidentally obtained was described as the remains of dinosaurs, but later it turned out that these were the bones of crocodiles, marine reptiles, and even amphibians.
However, even such finds were few - all of them would have fit in a small basket. Compared to the dinosaur cemeteries of Asia and America, where thousands of bones were dug up, this looked downright meager: in Russia, only one single bone turned out to be dinosaur. A small fragment of a lizard’s foot was dug up in the Chita region near a coal mine. Paleontologist Anatoly Ryabinin described it in 1915 under the name Allosaurus sibiricus, although from one bone it was impossible to determine which dinosaur it belonged to. It is clear that it is predatory - and that’s all.
Soon more valuable remains were found. True, two funny things happened with them at once. One day, an Amur Cossack lieutenant colonel noticed that fishermen were tying strange weights on their nets - long stones with a hole in the middle. The fishermen said that they collect them on the banks of the Amur River, where a high cliff is eroded. According to them, it turned out that the entire beach there was covered with stone knuckles.
This was reported to the Academy of Sciences. An expedition was organized, which, right before the revolution, delivered more than a ton of fossilized remains to St. Petersburg. They assembled a large skeleton from them, describing it as the new kind duck-billed dinosaur. The lizard was given the name “Amur Manchurosaurus” (Mandschurosaurus amurensis). True, evil tongues called him a gypsosaur, because he was missing many bones - they were molded from plaster. The skull, the most important part of the skeleton, was also made of plaster; only a piece of the braincase was real. Later it became clear that the original bones belonged to different species and genera of lizards.
Now almost none of the paleontologists recognize Manchurosaurs. The irony also lies in the fact that the bones were collected on the right, Chinese bank of the Amur. So “gypsosaurus” should not be considered Russian, but rather Chinese.
The curiosity came out with a second skeleton. The lizard was dug up in the coal mines of Sakhalin by Japanese paleontologists and named the Sakhalin Nipponosaurus (Nipponosaurus sachalinensis). This was in the 1930s, when, after Russia’s defeat in Russian-Japanese war, Japan owned the island. Fifteen years later, Sakhalin again became Russian, but the dinosaur remained “Japanese”. And no more dinosaur remains were found here.
The search for dinosaurs in Russia and the Soviet Union remained unsuccessful for a long time. It was getting ridiculous. In the late 1920s, to the southern outskirts Soviet Union, a paleontological expedition headed to the Kazakh steppes. “The whole day the horse walked over countless dinosaur bones,” recalled its participant, paleontologist and science fiction writer Ivan Efremov. The bones covered vast areas of tens of kilometers. But not a single skeleton or skull was found - only fragments of bones.
“They didn’t know how to study them back then, no one collected them,” says paleontologist Alexander Averyanov. Only half a century later, experts learned to identify extinct animals from fragmentary remains. But then the huge dinosaur cemetery in Kazakhstan had already been lost.
Then, for several years, Soviet paleontologists worked in the Kazakh Kara-Tau mountains, where layers of gray shale lie. These mountains contain a great variety of prints of fish, plants and insects from the Jurassic period. Unique skeletons of ancient salamanders, turtles, complete prints of pterosaurs, and a bird feather were discovered here. The remains of almost all the inhabitants of the Jurassic lake and those who inhabited its shores were found. And again - no dinosaurs, although the Jurassic period was their heyday...
In the first half of the last century, numerous burial sites of Permian lizards, Devonian fish, and Triassic amphibians were discovered in Russia. Paleontological laboratories had everything from fossil insects to mammoth carcasses. Everything except the notorious lizards - that’s what Ivan Efremov called dinosaurs in the Russian manner.
It wasn't until 1953 that paleontologists really got lucky. On the high bank of the Kemerovo Kiya River near the village of Shestakovo, geologists came across the skull and incomplete skeleton of a small, dog-sized psittacosaurus, which was named Siberian (Psittacosaurus sibiricus).
The skeleton was delivered to Moscow. A paleontological expedition was immediately sent to Kuzbass, but luck turned against the scientists again. They did not find any remains - the water was high that summer, the layer with bones was flooded.
Three years later, at the request of Efremov, an expedition of Kemerovo schoolchildren, led by Gennady Prashkevich, went to Shestakovo, in the future famous writer, poet, translator. The guys then collected a whole box of bones, but, as it turned out in Moscow, they all belonged to mammoths and bison. Only half a century later, several more dinosaur bones were found in Shestakovo, including huge, bucket-like sauropod vertebrae.
Everything was no less complicated with the locations of dinosaurs on Far East. In the 1950s, an expedition from the Paleontological Institute tried to find dinosaurs in Blagoveshchensk. Excavations brought nothing but a handful of scattered bones. It was decided that the bones were redeposited here: once whole skeletons were broken by water, after which the fragments were carried away to another place. They put an end to the location. As it turned out later, it was in vain.
The lizards found in the Far East turned out to be very interesting - these are one of the last dinosaurs to live on the planet.In the late 1990s, a road was being laid in the hills near Kundur, and in one of the construction trenches the son of geologist Yuri Bolotsky saw small vertebrae lying like a chain, one next to the other. It turned out to be the tail of a hadrosaur. Gradually excavating the remains, geologists uncovered a complete skeleton. The lizard was named Olorotitan arharensis. The first discovery was followed by others.
Nowadays, excavations are carried out annually in the Far East, mainly in Blagoveshchensk. The local lizards turned out to be very interesting - they were one of the last dinosaurs to live on the planet. They lived literally at the end of the great extinction. The study of Russian dinosaurs in general has advanced greatly in the last twenty years. A dozen large sites were found, and valuable remains were found in previously known discovery sites. The main burial places of Russian dinosaurs are located beyond the Urals - in Kundur, Blagoveshchensk, Shestakovo.
Unique place discovered on the banks of the Kakanaut River on the Koryak Highlands - this is the northernmost point of discovery of dinosaurs on the planet. Bones from seven families and egg shells from at least two species of dinosaurs have been found here. Remains of Cretaceous lizards were also found in Buryatia (locations Murtoy and Krasny Yar) and Krasnoyarsk Territory (Bolshoy Kemchug). Dinosaurs of the Jurassic period were found in Yakutia (Teete) and in the Republic of Tyva (Kalbak-Kyry).
A small burial of Jurassic reptiles was also discovered near the city of Sharypovo in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. Local historian Sergei Krasnolutsky came up with an idea: since dinosaurs were found in the neighboring Kemerovo region, then they can be found here in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. In search of bones, he went to a coal mine.
For a long time nothing came across, but finally the local historian saw the broken shells of turtles. There were so many of them that this layer was later called turtle soup. And nearby were bone plaques and teeth of crocodiles, long curved claws of dinosaurs that lived in the mid-Jurassic period.
This time is practically a “blank spot” in the evolution of terrestrial life. Very few traces of him remain. It is not surprising that excavations in Sharypovo, which have been ongoing for several years, have led to the discovery of new animals. Among them are an as yet undescribed stegosaurus and the predatory dinosaur Kileskus (Kileskus aristotocus), a distant ancestor of the famous tyrannosaurs.
In the western part of Russia there are no burials with intact skeletons and skulls of dinosaurs. Here, primarily in the Volga region and Belgorod region, mostly scattered remains are found - individual vertebrae, teeth or bone fragments.
An interesting discovery was made a hundred kilometers from Moscow, near the Peski railway station, in a quarry where white limestone is mined. In these quarries there are karst sinkholes from the Jurassic period. In the early 1990s, bulldozers opened up a whole chain of ancient caves. 175 million years ago an underground river flowed through them, originating in the lake. The river carried the remains of animals, tree branches, and plant spores underground. Over the course of several years, paleontologists managed to collect numerous turtle shells, bones of amphibians, crocodiles and ancient mammals, fish skeletons, freshwater shark spines and the remains of predatory coelurosaurs (Coelurosauria). These dinosaurs were probably about three meters long, although the bones found were small: teeth the size of a fingernail and a claw smaller than a matchstick.
Gradually, the picture of the life of Russian lizards is becoming more and more complete. Surely new burials will be discovered. And those that have been known for a long time constantly bring surprises in the form of bones of previously unknown dinosaurs. Othniel Charles Marsh, who insisted that there were no Russian dinosaurs, concluded his statement by saying that sooner or later the remains of these animals would be found in Russia. The American paleontologist turned out to be right, although he had to wait a long time.
Recently, researchers discovered the fossil of a huge flying reptile that could eat the entire prey it caught without, as they say, choking. And we are talking about “food” the size of a modern horse.
The remains of an ancient creature were discovered in Transylvania, a famous historical region in Romania. Experts suggest that the find is about 66-70 million years old.
Researchers say they have found a fossilized cervical vertebra of Hacegopteryx, a genus of azhdarchid pterosaur that lived during the Upper Cretaceous era (70.6 - 66 million years ago) in what is now Romania.
Experts describe them as creatures with a short but massive neck and large jaws. That is, the animal was able to swallow small man or a child.
The size of the found fossilized vertebra is approximately 240 millimeters in length and six millimeters in thickness. And it was the study of the characteristics of the find that allowed scientists to assume that Hatzegopteryx could feed not only on dinosaurs the size of rats, but also on larger individuals. So the diet of pterosaurs clearly needs to be reconsidered.
Paleontologists clarify that Hatzegopteryx was a pterosaur that existed during the time of dinosaurs. Scientists initially believed that pterosaurs ate fairly small prey, such as baby dinosaurs the size of rats. But new fossils show that some large individuals of pterosaurs did not disdain larger prey - horse-sized dinosaurs, for example.
Pterosaurs grew quite massive and large during the Late Cretaceous period - the last geological era when dinosaurs existed on Earth. One of the most famous pterosaur fossils is Quetzalcoatlus, found in Texas, USA. Its wingspan reached 10-12 meters, but the creature itself, as scientists established, fed on mollusks.
Quetzalcoatlus also belonged to the azhdarchid family. And in general, scientists believed that animals of this family had approximately the same body structure - long legs, neck and wings. But the recently discovered fossil of Hacegopteryx has forced them to reconsider their views.
Hatzegopteryx had a rather short but large neck, which was nevertheless much more powerful than that of other azhdarchids. An ancient creature with powerful wings (the span of which was up to 12 meters) weighed almost a quarter of a ton. Researchers say Hacegopteryx could even be called a dangerous pterosaur due to its huge jaw.
A study about an ancient creature with huge jaws was published in the scientific publication Peer J.
Let's go back in time and talk about some of the most dangerous animals that roamed our planet. It is a real happiness for us that these guys ceased to exist, otherwise human existence would have been impossible. This particular list discusses the ten most dangerous dinosaurs. The good news is that they will never come to life again, although seeing them now would be dangerous, but really interesting! This experience would be the first and last for some. We hope this list makes an impression on you.
Photo. Estimated coloration of Sinosauropteryx
Its name means "Chinese dragon wing" in Chinese. It was the first dinosaur not classified as Avialae to have wings. They had fluffy feathers, long tails and short forelimbs and were closely related to compsognathates. Both belong to the Compsognathus family. However, the feathers of Sinosauropteryx are not suitable for flight. These were the short downy feathers visible on the head, back and tail of this life-giving animal.
They lived in northeastern China during the Cretaceous period and were the first dinosaurs to be discovered in the Yixian Formation. Many aspects and their biology are illustrated through well-preserved fossils.
Photo. Liopleurodon in the depths of the sea
The name means "smooth teeth" and they were marine carnivorous reptiles. They belong to the suborder Pilosauroidea. They lived in the mid-Jurassic period and could grow to a whopping 25 meters in length. Their remains were mainly found in England and France, and one species is known to have existed somewhere in Russia. They had four strong limbs, which indicate that they were indeed strong swimmers. Research shows that this body structure provides excellent acceleration, if not top speed.
8. Ankylosaurus
Photo. Ankylosaurus
Ankylosaurus means "bent lizard". It belonged to the family Ankylosauridae (Latin: Ankylosauridae) and was classified as a reptile. They could grow to a length of approximately nine meters and weigh more than 6,000 kilograms. Fossils report that they lived during the Cretaceous period in western North America. The complete skeleton of these species has not yet been discovered, so the illustrations may not be accurate, but at least give an idea of them. This dinosaur was heavily armored, which helped it in both defense and attack.
In ankylosaurs and some other species of ankylosaurs, the bones at the end of the tail evolved into a rigid structure similar to baseball bat. Some of the bony plates on the skin became huge and completely enveloped the tip of the tail. Ankylosaurs also had wide hips, which meant that the muscles that moved the tail from side to side were large and powerful.
The armored dinosaur Ankylosaurus was a close relative of the Stegosaurus and these dinosaurs fought off their enemies in the same way. While the Stegosaurus had a row of spikes at the end of its tail, the Ankylosaurus was equipped with a massive hundred-pound tail "club." A well-directed strike from this projectile could easily break a hungry Tyrannosaurus's hind leg or even knock out a few teeth, although it appears to have also been used in intraspecific combat during mating season.
Photo. Sarcosuchus on the hunt
Sarcosuchus means "crocodile flesh". They appear to be very distantly related to crocodiles, which lived about 112 million years ago. These are perhaps the largest crocodiles that have ever lived on Earth, judging by fossils found in Africa. They are classified as a reptile and belong to the Pholidosauridae family. It is generally accepted that they were as long as a city bus, over 12 meters, and they weighed over 8 tons. One skull was the size of a grown man, one bite and you were gone.
Unlike its closest relatives, who lived in a marine environment, Sarcosuchus fell in love with rivers. He spent most of his time underwater, leaving only his eyes on the surface, he waited for animals that came to drink.
6. Allosaurus
Photo. Allosaurus
These guys lived at the end of the Jurassic period about 155 million years ago. The name means "strange lizard". It is classified as a reptile and belongs to the family Allosauridae. It reportedly had a large skull with several very sharp teeth and was overall about 9 meters long and 4 meters high. Some studies show that they could reach 12 meters. They had a heavy tail providing good balance. They are estimated to have weighed about 2.3 tons. Imagine if these creatures were alive or came to life.
Hard to evaluate mortal danger dinosaurs only from the fossils that have survived to us. But if you're willing to make a bit of a leap in time, Allosaurus was a much deadlier predator than Tyrannosaurus. Either way, Allosaurus wasn't very smart. For example, a group of adult dinosaurs was found that died in a quarry in Utah, mired in deep mud as they chased prey.
Photo. Three Troodon
It was a small, bird-like dinosaur that reportedly lived during the late Cretaceous period. Their fossils were first discovered in 1855 in North America. Other species have been found in Texas, New Mexico and Wyoming. The name means "wounding tooth." It is classified as a reptile and belongs to the troodontidae family. They are said to have averaged about 2.5 meters in length and could weigh more than 50 kilograms. As we said, they were small. But less is more deadly, at least in most cases.
He didn't have particularly sharp or scary teeth. But it was found that this theropod had a relatively large brain, at least compared to other carnivorous dinosaurs of the Late Cretaceous period, and was presumably capable of hunting in packs at night.
4. Kronosaurus
Photo. Kronosaurus
The name means "lizard of Kronos". They were named after Greek titanium named Kronos. These dinosaurs had a short neck. They are classified as sauropsids and belong to the family Pliosauridae. They reached 13 meters in length, but were usually around 9 or 10 meters. They were equipped with large teeth exceeding seven centimeters in length. The largest of his teeth was 30 centimeters long. Its fossils were discovered in Australia.
Kronosaurus had teeth up to 30 cm long and used them to tear apart prey such as huge fish, squid, ammonites and even other marine reptiles including ichthyosaurs and turtles. Possible bite marks from this animal were found on one known Elasmosaurus skull.
3. Amphicelia
Photo. Amphicelia in the Polish dinosaur park JuraPark
The name literally means "duality". These dinosaurs were the longest of all known vertebrates, averaging 40 to 60 meters in length. They weighed 122 tons and reached a height of a 7-story building. They were classified as a reptile and belonged to the family Diplodocidae. Their remains were lost at some point, so these guys couldn't be studied in detail, although the movie Jurassic Park gives a pretty good idea of what they looked like.
2. Velociraptor
Photo. Velociraptor
We're sure you remember these guys from the famous movie called Jurassic Park and this movie gives an idea of what a problem they could be for other dinosaurs. The name means "swift hunter" and they are said to have lived 75-71 million years ago. They lived during the late Cretaceous period. Their fossils have been found in China and Mongolia. They are classified as a reptile and belong to the dromaeosauridae family. They could weigh up to 15 kilograms and grow up to 2 meters in length. While they may seem potentially harmless given their size and weight, they tend to attack in herds and that's where the problem lies. In addition, they moved very quickly.
1. Tyrannosaurus
Photo. Apocalyptic scene with tyrannosaurs
We're sure you'd expect Thysarosaurus to be at the top of the list. The name means "tyrant lizard". Fossil records indicate that these guys lived in western North America about 67 million years ago. They are classified as a reptile and belong to the family Tyrannosauridae. They could grow over 12 meters in length and typically weighed over 6 tons. They were armed with claws and long powerful tails. We're just sure that you can imagine these guys very well if you saw them in the movie "Jurassic Park."
Tyrannosaurus rex was first reported to have scaly skin, followed by reports that the lizard king may have been covered in “fluffy feathers,” but a new study of Tyrannosaurus rex skin reports that these dinosaurs were not covered in feathers.
We will never know whether Tyrannosaurus was particularly violent or scarier than other, lesser-known tyrannosaurs such as Albertosaurus or Alioramus, or whether it hunted live prey or spent most of its time feasting on already dead carcasses. In any case, there is no doubt that Tyrannosaurus was a perfect killing machine when the circumstances called for it, given its weight of 5 to 8 tons, keen eyesight and huge head covered with numerous sharp teeth.
Well, if you haven’t quenched your interest in dinosaurs, then we recommend watching documentary"Planet Dinosaur", consisting of several episodes.
