We see fossil Reconstruction Period or illustrations of species that have come and gone and we sometimes say , " Come on now , that ca n’t be material ! " Or maybeyoudon’t , butIhave , because these creatures expect like they descend from a repugnance film or a child ’s most frightening incubus .
1. The Creature: PlatybelodonThe Nightmare: Pink Elephants on Parade on Acid
Quick -how many prehistoric congeneric of the elephant can you name ? Mammoth , mastodon , and … that ’s it , right ? MeetPlatybelodon . Even the minds who conceive Heffalumps and Snuffleupagus would consider this creature to be too ridiculous to think . When I first encounteredPlatybelodonin this illustration byDeviantART phallus Sk00tie , I think the artist had made up the mintage . But no …
Platybelodonwas a " shovel tusker " . Ten million year ago , it roamed Africa , Europe , Asia , and North America , wipe out trees and plants that maturate in swamps . It is one of several ancient elephants from theGomphotherefamily . See more ofPlatybelodonin aYouTube television .
2. The Creature: BullockornisThe Nightmare: The Demon Duck of Doom
What looks a mo like a duck’s egg , but is eight feet tall and eats wombats?Bullockornis planeiwas a dame that drift Australia as far back as 15 million years ago , but perchance also survived to see man .
A giant skull set up a few year ago led scientist to believeBullockorniswas omnivorous , anddevoured other animals whole . This hoot bring in the nicknamethe Demon Duck of Doom .
3. The Creature: OpabiniaThe Nightmare: Nunu with Five Eyes
Opabinia regalisflourished 500 million old age ago during the Cambrian period . This odd creature had five eyes , two of them on husk , and a trunk resemble a vacuum cleaner hose that made up about a third of its consistency distance . Just remember of the Teletubbies’Nunuwith redundant eyeballs ! Fossil specimens are pretty small -shorter than your finger- but there is conjecture that these were juvenile and the fauna may have grown bigger . Opabiniais a tool that so far defies categorisation . Should it be judge an arthropod or an annelidan , related to crustacean or trilobite ? It may be an ancient root of them all . Illustration byNobu Tamura .
4. The Creature: QuetzalcoatlusThe Nightmare: Flying Dragon Wants to Eat You
Quetzalcoatlus northropimay have been the largest flying animal ever . The approximate wingspan gleaned from fossil grounds is 36 foot , although former extrapolation put it as high as 60 feet . Either agency , that ’s a large animal . It took a lot of muscularity ability to get 500 pound off the ground ! This flying reptile lived about 65 million old age ago . Quetzalcoatlus northropiate dinosaurs for breakfast , which is enough to fire anyone ’s nightmares . instance byMark Witton and Darren Naish .
5. The Creature: TitanoboaThe Nightmare: Big Snake
The nameTitanoboameans " bounteous snake in the grass . " The speciesTitanoboa cerrejonensisis the adult Snake River ever name , which was about four class ago in Colombia . The fogey remain of a couple of dozen such Snake were studied , precede scientist to figure their size of it at a maximal 15 meters , or 50 feet!Titanoboa cerrejonensiswas a constrictor that live around 60 million years ago , eat animals the size of crocodiles -whole . Illustration by Jason Bourque .
6. The Creature: DunkleosteusThe Nighmare: Jaws with Armor
You might have seen this chilling fish , if you had been around 400 million years ago . Dunkleosteuswas an armoured Pisces the Fishes that grew to be twenty feet tenacious and had sharp teeth in massive jaw that could slice through bones . Scientists have been divided onhow to classifyDunkleosteusamong Pisces the Fishes , since evidence observe at dissimilar sentence associate it to unlike types of existing species .
DeviantART memberDNK - Anaisgives us this example of how terrifyingDunkleosteuswould seem to other ocean wight and any land animal that got too close .
7. The Creature: ProcoptodonThe Nightmare: A Hairy Grinch with Claws
Procoptodon goliahwas a giant short - faced kangaroo . It was about twice the weight of the modern red kangaroo ( butnot much tall ) , and hop around on feet that had one toe each ! It wipe out only plants , and could stretch to extend to branch 12 feet above ground . This kangaroo had eyes that faced ahead , which gave it the ability to see depth and a resemblance to theGrinchfrom the Dr. Seuss book . There were also smaller species ofProcoptodon , which were all out by 40,000 class ago .
8. The Creature: PristerognathusThe Nightmare: What’s Behind the “Beware of Dog” Sign
The genusPristerognathuswere animals that lived 250 million geezerhood ago in Africa . They areTherocephalians , which are reptiles that have mammalian characteristic . One of the few thing we bonk aboutPristerognathusis that it was carnivorous and had a Brobdingnagian head compared to the relief of its physical structure , and most of that head was jaws and tooth . However , the whole animal was about the size of a household cat . Illustration byDmitri Bogdanov .
See also : The Bigger They Are : 10 Ice Age Giants
