It is an unbelievable fact that the earth was once a natural habitat of gigantic, fearsome creatures which dominated the nature even before the human beings came into existence. Let’s have a view of these interesting, real existing Prehistoric Animals.
10-Elephant Bird
It was a huge, flightless bird that once inhabited the island of Madagascar. It was the largest bird known, growing up to 10ft tall and weighing 400-450kg. Its name was particularly related to the fact that it was so big sized that it could easily carry a baby elephant. Its unique characteristic’s was its long powerful neck and its taloned claws which made it resemble to an ostrich or an emu. Its egg was big enough to suffice the need a family for one time. Though it was a huge bird, it was a herbivore. The reason of its extinction remains unclear but can be attributed mainly to human activities and climate change.
9 –Marsupial Lion
The marsupial lion was the largest flesh eating mammal that was once found in Australia It was a ferocious creature which had a striking resemblance to the saber-toothed tiger, but was not related to it or a lion in anyway instead it was closely related to the kangaroo and the wombat. It was a robust, powerful animal that had the most powerful bite to kill a large animal in a minute. Growing upto5 feet long and 200 kg in weight with strong, powerful jaws, sharp teeth and retractable thumb claws this beast surely would have given a spine chilling experience to its prey. It became extinct nearly 40,000years ago due to depletion in food source, falling prey to other animals and also due to being hunted by human being.
8-Beelzebufo Ampinga
Today the largest known frog in the world is “Goliath” found in Africa which measures about 12.5 inches in length but the Beelzebufo Ampinga or the “Devil frog” measured 15-16 inches in length and weighed 4.5kg in weight making it the largest frog ever known in the world. This frog was huge, powerful, aggressive and ill-tempered one with a round wide mouth and powerful jaws enough to hunt down small animals. It inhabited the island of Madagascar about 70 million years ago.
7 –Meglania
Meglania belonged to the species of lizard, it was a gigantic terrestrial lizard that had a huge skull with a well build heavy body weighing up to 400-600kgs.It inhabited the plains of Australia 40,000years ago. The Megalania possessed highly poisonous saliva which helped it kill its prey. Which included small animals, birds, reptiles and even large sized marsupials?
6-Haast’S Eagle
It will be a real nightmare if you see a giant bird pouching upon you right from the sky, gripping you in its claws and flying off with the intention of feasting upon you, isn’t it? This is not rubbish because the settlers who lived on the island of New Zealand did encounter with such a monstrous bird called the “Haasts Eagle” This bird attacked its prey with the amazing speed of 70-80 km/h seizing it with one foot and killing it with a blow on the head with the other. It was 17-18 kgs and was the largest eagle known, large enough to carry of a small child. It became extinct due to when its food source got depleted.
5-Archelon Ischyros
This belonged to the species of turtle and is the largest turtle ever known. It survived 70 million years ago and was quiet huge in size measuring 15-16 feet from its snout to tail and weighing approx. 4000 pounds. Its shell itself measured 6-7 feet .It was a carnivore which had a strong and deadly bite. Unlike present day turtles it did not have a solid shell but had skeletal framework with a leathery covering.
4- Wooly Mammoth
The Wooly Mammoth commonly named for the vanished elephant genre “Mammuthus. Most of the population of these wooly mammoths was in North America and Eurasia. It was the last of the mammoth species and died at the time of final glacial recoil which led to mass extinction of animate being. There is a controversy with the fact that whether the climatic conditions took the toll of their lives or over stalking by humans reduced the population of the mammoths to the levels that they are now extinct. Recent research indicates that they survived until ten thousand years ago on the American land
3-Indricotherium
The biggest mammal on the land, Indricotherium, is also recognized as Paraceratherium and Baluchitherium. This extinct species from Africa was an herbivore and almost weighed thrice of an African elephant. These species lived in the forest region of central Asia about twenty three million years ago. With their downwards pointing teeth, the upper canine occluded with the lower teeth, they pulled the leaves from the trees. Their dentition indicated that they lived largely on leaves, twigs and shrubs.
2-Sarcosuchus imperator
Sarcosuchus means a “fleshy crocodile”, is a remote relative and an extinct genre of the crocodiles which lived approximately one hundred and twelve years ago. This fleshy reptile weighed nearly eight tons, doubles the size of modern crocodile and lived in Africa and South America in the Mesozoic era. Recently, in 1997, an American paleontologist Paul Sereno led an expedition to explore the remains of the skeletons, skulls and tons of fossils, which dated in the early Albian period .
1. Basilosaurus
Basilosaurus meaning “the king lizard” is a genre of the whales that lived approximately thirty four million years ago. It had large teeth and a pair of small fins at the rear end. Basilosaurus were found in the parts of North America and the Sahara desert in the Africa. With a gigantic skull, that was often misguided as that of the primitive crocodile, this prehistoric whale’s body measured up to 5 ft. in length and had a slim tail. They also had a pair of tiny legs and toes which confirms that they primitively lived on land. They are carnivorous in nature and ate small fishes, sharks and was one of the ace predators of the sea.
Similar Posts:
- Top 10 Best Self-Defense Handguns Review 2013 List
- Top 10 Best Stereo Headphones 2013 List
- Top 10 Best Video Sharing Websites like YouTube 2013 List
- Top Ten Most Interesting Facts About Thomas Jefferson
- Top 10 Best LCD Projectors
- Top 10 Acid Reflux Remedies