From newly discovered species with super-long necks to giant horned beasts with frills, here are 8 fascinating prehistoric creatures! Follow us on instagram!
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8. Bus-Sized Sea Monster
When researchers unearthed a prehistoric sea monster in Nevada, they ended up uncovering the first ocean predator that had evolved to eat prey its own size. An animal that lived 244 million years ago, Thalattoarchon saurophagis, which translates to "lizard-eating sovereign of the sea", was as big as a bus and part of a group of reptiles swimming in the ocean called Ichthyosaurs. They looked like large, toothy porpoises and dolphins and were not dinosaurs.
7. New Plesiosaur
In 2010, David Bradt, a resident of Montana, was out hunting elk when he ventured into a canyon and discovered what he thought was petrified wood coming out of some rock. After taking a closer look, Bradt realized what he thought was wood was actually a fossilized vertebrae of a large animal. Armed with photos of his find, Bradt reported the discovery to the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Museum of the Rockies in Montana.
6. Allosaurus
As one of the earliest dinosaur discoveries ever, a number of Allosaurus fossils have been found by paleontologists so it's a lot of people’s favorite! A carnivorous dinosaur that moved around on two legs, it lived around 150 million years ago during the late Jurassic period. It is the most common dinosaur fossil found in Utah's Cleveland Lloyd quarry, a site that has the densest concentration of Jurassic dinosaur bones in the world. (So it is also Utah’s state fossil).
5. Megatherium
Although you might not think a sloth would be particularly terrifying, you might think differently once you see the Megatherium. A 13-foot sloth that lived in prehistoric Amazon, Megatherium was one of the largest ground mammals to have ever existed. It dominated the continent’s southern grasslands and forests for thousands of years before being wiped from the planet in a mass extinction event.
4. Gorgonops
A creature that lived in southern Africa during the late Permian era, Gorgonops was a mammal that had distinctly reptile-like characteristics. Measuring 6 to 10 feet long from snout to tail, Gorgonops, whose name translates to "gorgon face", was discovered in the 1800s. If you thought this creature got its name from the Gorgons in Greek mythology, such as Medusa, it’s kind of close.
3. Giant Sea Scorpion
Scorpions are bad enough, with their intimidating claws and venomous stinger. But an 18-inch stinger (46cm) is on a whole other level! It belonged to Jaekelopterus (pronounced Jee-kel-op-teh-rus) rhenaniae, a massive, 8.2-foot-long sea scorpion.
2.Hammer-Headed Herbivore
In 2014, a paleontologist from the Canadian Museum of Nature discovered a new species of reptile in China. This sea creature was called Atopodentatus unicus and lived between 247 and 242 million years ago. It had a head the shape of a vacuum cleaner and it is the earliest known plant-eating marine reptile.
1. Horned Dinosaur
Entombed for 68 million years, a dinosaur with distinct facial horns was found along a Canadian riverbank in 2005. But horned dinosaurs like this are rarely unearthed in this part of the world. Nicknamed “Hellboy” for its stubby horns that are similar to the comic book character, Regaliceratops peterhewsi, which means "royal horned face", was found along the Oldman River in south-western Alberta after the tip of its snout was discovered sticking out of a cliff.
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