We have heard of scary tales of dinosaurs wrecking the world over a million years ago, stories of deadly animals that fed on anything that lived then. Surprisingly, these aren’t just empty allegations, prove exists to justify them. Here are the 10 scariest of them all.
10. Helicoprion
This is a bizarre type of fish that existed thousands of years ago. The mystery about this creature begins with a weird artifact that was discovered recently. Helicoprion puzzled scientists and paleontologists for a long period of time. The remains that proved this animal existed was a whorl of teeth, which scientists believed belonged to the animal’s lower jaw.
This wasn’t proven yet, because the whorl of teeth couldn’t easily be proven to belong to the lower jaw. It was later on when other parts of the jaw were discovered that the location of its buzzsaw-shaped teeth were justified to fill the lower jaw.
Shockingly, this creature had no upper teeth, meaning it could disgustingly bite and gum you at the same time, sounds scary right?! Its jaw would close up, enabling the sharp teeth to rotate backwards just like a circular saw blade. From how its teeth are adapted, it believed Helicoprion fed on soft bodies of squid and other sea creatures.
The dangerous whorl of teeth was formed outwards as they grew, forming a spiral shaped structure as it aged. This means that the set of teeth at the beginning of the whorl are small but gradually increase in size as it ends. Edestus, is a type of fish that was equally terrifying as Helicoprion, it had an offset arrow like jaws that hang out of it’s creepy scary face.
9. Arthropleura
Trust me, this not the kind of creature you want to encounter crawling around the bushes when you get out for a hike. This animal lived over 200 thousand years ago and it’s remains were discovered early this decade. The Arthropleura was gigantic, an 8.5 foot long millipede that existed in the Carboniferous era.
Despite the fact that it was herbivorous and fed on dead plant matter just like the modern day millipedes, it has scare factor. Just because this creature won’t come preying after you does not mean it isn’t creepy and won’t scare you to death. From its remains that were discovered a decade ago, Arthropleaura could maneuver and move very fast, undulating hundreds of its legs in a certain rhythm that could disturb and nauseate anyone watching.
From the records, the Arthropleaura was the largest known land invertebrate of all time. It had no predators because of large and scary nature. That alone, kept off a lot of potential predictors but if faced with one, it could probably toughen up into a defensive posture and face it head on.
8. The Smilodon
This is a famous saber-toothed cat that existed North and Southern America long time ago. This cat was the same size as today’s tigers and lions, it however had a larger upper body and massive strength that it used to fight down its prey. It killed its prey using the ’11 long fangs that bit through the throat , or inflicting wounds to the lungs of the victim.
This animal could get you no matter what, if you ran down, its long teeth could tear up your skin and penetrate down into your flesh. It had an incredible speed that it used to run down its victims. It had an incredible speed of over 60 KM/hr, meaning it could easily attack and hunt down its prey with so much ease. It dominated the forests and territories it resided, scaring off other predictors.
Despite the fact that its bite might not be as strong as that of today’s big cats, it still makes it one of the most terrifying animals that existed before.
7. Livyatan Melvillei
This was a type of whale that existed over one hundred years ago. It is named both for its terrifying sea creature: ‘Leviathan’ which means ‘when he rises, the big and mighty are terrified and retreat before he thrashes them. The other name it bears is that derived from Herman Melville, the guy who authored the novel Moby Dick, a story about an accursed whale that terrified Captain Ahab and eventually led to his death and his ship’s and crew destruction.
This therefore, gives meaning to the name Livyatan Melvillei. This beastly whale resembles the modern day sperm whale just like Moby Dick. It was in existence during the Miocene epoch. How huge was it? It was over 60 feet long and had skull that measured over 10 foot, the scary beast also had over forty 15′ long teeth.
By far, these are longest set of teeth ever known from any creature both alive and extinct. What did these monsters feed on? They fed on extremely large prey at the bottom of the sea including other whales, yes you heard it right, other whales! What made this creatures astonishingly very huge is because it was competing for food directly with the Megalodon.
6. The Spinosaurus
This is the sixth beast on our countdown. It is one of the most spectacular and horrible creatures that ever walked on earth. Describing this animal alone will send chills down your spine: it had a massive elongated skull that resembled that of a crocodile and an enormous snout filled with over 64 strong, fang-like conical teeth.
From what was concluded on its fossils, this beast was semiaquatic, meaning you can’t escape from it, whether on land or in water. Up to today, the Spinosaurus is the largest of all known carnivorous dinosaurs, bigger than the popular Giganotosaurus and T. rex. It isn’t exactly known what its size was, but recent studies show that this beast could have been as big as 60, feet long, weighing over 20 tons.
It had huge neural spines that were visible across its back, creating a sail-like structure that made it appear more terrifying and larger in size.
5. Sarcosuachus
This is the fifth scary animal on our countdown. It is 40 foot long, weighs over 10 tons and existed in the Cretaceous region, the present North Africa and South America. The Sarcosuchus lived on both land and sometimes in water, making it very hard to escaping from it. It had a skull that measured over 6 foot long and head s staggering 132 teeth!
The outstanding characteristic about this beast that perhaps, earned it a spot on our top 10 scariest prehistoric animals is that it was larger than almost all the dinosaurs that existed then. It was larger than the beastly terrestrial prey, and even fed on other dinosaurs!
Scientists affirm that it mostly consumed sea creatures like fish and spent most of its time under water. This doesn’t make it less scary, but the fact it can take down gigantic animals like the Suchomimus should scare the hell out of you.
Keep reading to find out more about the next deadliest animals, some of which you never imagined they exist!
4. Titanoboa
Those of you with ophidiophobia, this is the creature you should be watching out for! It is a snake measuring over 42 foot and lived during the Paleocene epoch. Scientists say that this beast preyed on crocodile lurking around in water and those those partially submerged in water, this makes them easier to be attacked and ambushed.
The gigantic snake had the ability to strike from well under water and whirl it self around the victim, crushing it to death and swallowing it. The Titanoboa lived Southern American regions where the environment favoured them: warmer and cooler temperatures that compare to today’s tropical environment.
The conducive environment enabled them grow faster and develop into large sizes just like the modern replies do. This beastly snake is so terrifying that enormous animals like the Indiana Jones can’t fit in its shadow.
3. Giganotosaurus
We have entered the top three on our countdown and it is about to get even scarier! Placed at position three on this epic list is the iconic Giganotosaurus. It is 43 feet monster larger than the size of a Tyrannosaurus rex, beating it by more than three feet. It lived in the area around Southern America thousands of years ago.
It had a 5.4 foot skull with 64 teeth , each of them eight inches long and serrated to slice through flesh of its victims. It was however, not well adapted to crushing bones like T Rex did. The Giganotosaurus existed during the Cretaceous period and lived in modern day’s Argentina. This beast was almost similar to Carcharodontosaurus, a nearly same sized monster from Northern Africa.
Evidence extracted from its fossils suggests that the Gigonotosaurus hunted in packs, and preyed on its victims in large sauropods. This is an outstanding characteristic because it makes it the only theropod that preyed on sauropods actively. An interesting feature about this animal is that its lower jaw was slightly broadened, enabling it to handle even smaller preys.
If it lived today, animals we see to huge like elephants could appear like a cat to it. You can imagine the kind of destruction it could cause to humanity if it lived today.
2. Megadolon
This is the second scariest prehistoric animal on our countdown. Megadolon is a 59 foot long shark that hunted and lived in the same waters as the Livyatan Melvillei, the beast we discussed earlier. It had enormous 7 foot jaws that contained 5 rows of serrated, blade-like teeth well adopted to cutting and grasping its preys deep under the sea.
Typically, sharks skeleton is made of cartilage and they not captured in the fossil record , this is the same case the megalodon. Paleontologists had to use its jaws and traceable fossils to paint a picture of how it looked like. The body structure of this beastly animal almost resembles that of a great white shark.
And if it had the hunting techniques same those of the great white shark, it could have been attacking its prey by surprise from below and neutralize it with incredibly strong bites. Additionally, sharks are also known to vigorously shake their prey from side to side to establish a firm grip into the victim’s flesh. From the evidence extracted from the fossils of whale vertebrae in the form of teeth marks, it showed that the megalodon actively preyed on large whales.
They had strongly built teeth that could tear down and crush any strong bone. Their body structure was also strong and could rarely crack.
1. Jaekelopterus
This is the scariest prehistoric animal! It can simply be described in three words, Giant Sea Scorpion. The Jaekelopterus is an eight foot long creature that lived in water and equipped with massive pincher claws. To be honest, almost all eurypterids are very scary and this entire video could easily have focused at how terrifying these creatures look. Most of the eurypterids appear eerily just like the face huggers from the Alien movie: extremely scary for those haven’t watched it yet.
The beastly animal has several segmented bodies and a number of specialized limbs and dangerous spikes. Their claws are loaded with springs to attack and snatch up fish passing by. The largest claw was 18 inches and could easily attack a fish, no matter how fast it was. Smaller scorpions that operated in the sea were believed to be crawling ashore to shed their outer skin and mate. Picture yourself finding a molt of one these scary creatures on the shore just before you go swimming, scary right?
The Jaekelopterus were so scary that even the fossils discovered, scared off a few scientists! Remember, fossils could even be over a million years old, what if you met the real Jaekelopterus? That’s surely a story for another day.
