Largest Creatures To Ever Exist On Earth

the battle still rages on for the title of the largest dinosaur to walk the earth as more time passes we uncover more evidence of these prehistoric giants and we're not talking about just the plant eaters but the meat-eating dinosaurs too just how big were the mightiest sauropods and could these Giants really have fallen prey to the Ferocious meat-eaters during their time could the mighty Giganotosaurus or the huge and scary Spinosaurus defeated Tyrannosaurus Rex in battle and could the T-Rex have been 70 percent larger than previously thought if you love dinosaurs then get ready to find

out the answers to this and more many of you probably learned that dinosaurs such as brontosaurus and Diplodocus were the biggest and they were the standard image of monstrous plant eaters to museum goers for more than a century But as time went on WE quickly learned that even these enormous animals weren't the largest of all lots of new dinosaur bones were uncovered during the great dinosaur Renaissance which lasted from the 1970s through to the 1990s and these fossils had big names like Ultrasaurus seismosaurus and supersaurus ments from the field about these huge monsters didn't hold

up in the lab when the fossils were studied sadly a lot of dinosaur bones that were discovered back then were either lost destroyed during World War II or the fossils simply disintegrated and now other examples have since been discovered the largest complete fossil skeleton for a plant-eating dinosaur that's been found belongs to Brachiosaurus which ranged in size from 17 to 22 meters long and would have stood some 13 meters tall the huge dinosaur probably weighed as much as 70 tons it had longer front limbs compared to its hind limbs which likely helped the Brachiosaurus reach

higher vegetation without straining its long neck some paleontologists say that this dinosaur might have occasionally stood up on its hind legs to reach food the huge Brachiosaurus was so big that it likely had few predators and it's estimated they lived for about 100 years for many decades the only fossils that paleontologists had of a beast called dinocyrus an omnivorous giant theropod was a pair of eight foot long arms that had eight inch claws which were the largest and longest arms of any bipedal dinosaur discovered back in the Gobi desert in 1964. scientists named it dinocyrus

miraficus Greek for terrible hands fossils tell us this dinosaur reached lengths of 10 meters long and stood at least 4.5 meters tall and with most adults weighing in at over 9 tons it was no slouch in the size Department either you're probably wondering what it used the lung arms and Claws for paleontologists say that dinocyrus likely used its long arms and Claws to dig up plants or even catch fish however dinosaurus probably snatched up any other small creature that was unlucky enough to cross paths with it other features of this big unique dinosaur include a

large thick humped backbone this dinosaur sounds big and scary but there was a bipedal herbivore even bigger around the same time about 100 million years ago during the late Cretaceous Period there was a huge hadrosaurid dinosaur that roamed in what is now the Shandong peninsula scientific name is shandangosaurus gigantius or Shandong lizard due to it being one of the largest ornithischian dinosaurs found to date a full-grown shandongosaurus could reach lengths of up to 16.5 meters and some of the largest of these dinosaurs could have weighed around 16 tons skull alone from one of these beasts

measured 1.6 meters long and like all hadrosaurs it had a giant toothless beak but its jaws were packed with around 1 500 tiny chewing teeth it was a strange dinosaur in that fossil remains show a large hole near its nostrils that paleontologists say could have been covered by a flap of skin that could be inflated to make sounds if this dinosaur was full grown it might have been too intimidating for predators to attack it but all of these dinosaurs had one thing in common they were all on the menu of some predatory meat-eating dinosaur the

last two dinosaurs we talked about were likely hunted by Tarbosaurus this dinosaur was also discovered in the Gobi desert and could reach 10 to 12 meters in length and as a result weighed in at 4.5 metric tons like all other meat-eating predators of the time this dinosaur hunted and ate anything it could bring down it had thickened long legs that allowed it to move with Speed and Agility the interesting thing about this terrifying Predator is that it had a unique locking mechanism in its 1.2 meter long jaw which had between 58 and 64 large sharp

knife-shaped teeth about 8.3 centimeters long this meant that when it attacked its unlucky prey its jaw could lock down on the victim leaving it with no way to escape this dinosaur was the king of dinosaurs in Ancient Asia but in North America a much more menacing king of the dinosaurs was found the Tyrannosaurus Rex is probably everyone's favorite dinosaur even though it would have been a terrifying monster for any human to encounter the T-Rex was definitely one of the biggest carnivorous dinosaurs measuring up to 12.3 meters long and could weigh up to 8.8 metric tons

and for their size they were quick some scientists say that the Tyrant Lizard King could Sprint between 20 and 32 kilometers per hour and if something wasn't fast enough to escape the Tyrannosaurus Rex it would have to contend with a 1.2 meter long jaw full of 50 to 60 banana-sized teeth that could exert up to 12 814 pounds of force recently scientists have done a study that concludes this dinosaur could be 70 bigger than fossils suggest that means the largest T-Rex could have weighed a whopping 15 metric tons that's heavier than the average bus T-Rex

was almost certainly an apex predator and could probably bring down anything with that incredibly powerful bite and those 30 centimeter long teeth while the T-Rex definitely sounds big and impressive he wasn't the biggest meat eater and even though the skeletons of the next big carnivorous dinosaur are incomplete we have somewhat an idea of how big it was Giganotosaurus was thought to stand six meters high and was around 13.7 meters long however paleontologists have argued that the skull of the Giganotosaurus was the same size as Tyrannosaurus Rex and probably had less bite force but their jaws

could open and close faster and they brought down their prey by delivering quick powerful bites whereas T-Rex's bite was so powerful it could crush the bones of its prey but Giganotosaurus was thought to have one big advantage over T-Rex as it could run as fast as 50 kilometers per hour thanks to its larger and more powerful leg muscles even though this dinosaur might be bigger than T-Rex if these two got into a battle it might be better for Giganotosaurus to run but there is another dinosaur that is just as terrifyingly scary if not more so

the legendary Spinosaurus was first discovered back in 1912 by German paleontologist Ernst stroma in Egypt unfortunately the original fossils were destroyed during World War II but drawings with notes of the fossils were detailed enough for paleontologists to come up with enough ideas of what it looked like Spinosaurus had Jaws like a crocodile with conical teeth and large hooked claws for catching slippery prey like the 20-foot long sawfish or Giant lungfish this makes sense because Egypt during the late Cretaceous Period was a Tropical Oasis of mangrove-lined rivers full of sharks and other giant fish since then

paleontologists in the Moroccan Sahara have found a mostly Complete Tale of a Spinosaurus with its huge sale on its back the dinosaur stood at 6.5 meters tall and its skull was 1.75 meters long Spinosaurus could grow between 14 to 18 meters long and weighed an astonishing 12 000 to 20 000 kilograms because this dinosaur was more adapted to the water it was a hybrid and could also hunt on land if it had to wear it to run into Giganotosaurus it could probably win the battle but Tyrannosaurus rex on the other hand with its massive bite

force and 30 centimeter long teeth this might have given the spinosaurus a run for its money today's alligators can be a problem for humans but only if you get in their way when they're hungry but had the alligatoroid crocodilian Deinosuchus not gone extinct we'd probably have something far scarier to deal with today known also as the king of crocodilians the Deinosuchus is more closely related to Modern alligators and was roaming the planet around 82 to 73 million years ago the monster alligator could grow from 12 to 15 meters long and weigh up to a whopping

4 300 kilograms it had a large uniquely shaped skull with between 40 and 44 teeth in its mouth all of the teeth in the mouth of the dinosaurs were very strong with short rounded blunt teeth in the rear for crushing bone and sharp eight inch long teeth in the front to slice through flesh for the most part its teeth were built to hold on to its prey modern saltwater crocodiles are recorded to have the strongest bite of any living animal compare the size of the terrible crocodile Deinosuchus to Modern alligators and this Beast might have

had a bite force as high as 23 000 PSI that bite force is even greater than that of the mighty Tyrannosaurus Rex which a new estimate puts at around 12 814 PSI anything caught in the jaws of the dinosaurs would have a tough time getting away but also modern alligators have a special move they likely inherited from dinosaurs called the death roll where after having clamped its jaws down on its prey it would then use a full body twisting motion to disable or dismember its prey alligators can't chew after all but there were a lot

of other scary things in the water during prehistoric times for those who like to swim or scuba dive you'll be glad that Dunkleosteus is now extinct the sheer size of this huge Carnival would be enough to scare you alone it grew almost nine meters long and weighed close to 4 000 kilograms full grown Dunkleosteus was an armored fish an apex predator that was capable of taking down just about anything he could get in its jaws the interesting thing about the heavily armored tank-like Dunkleosteus is that it was toothless instead of teeth its armored head and

jaw plates formed massive self-sharpening blades that could rip and tear through anything and with a bite force of 21 000 pounds per square inch that's on par with giant crocodiles this scary creature of the depths could Chomp straight through bone furthermore the jaws of the Dunkleosteus could rapidly open and close very fast creating a suction action that would suck prey right into their jaws and this fish didn't care what got in its way because everything was lunch there's even fossil evidence showing they tried to eat each other it would be no problem for a fish

this size to quickly make a meal of a human lucky for us the Dunkleosteus went extinct along with 75 of the planet species from a combination of eight to ten Extinction events over 20 million years called the late devonian Extinction we all know about the Velociraptors ferocious dinosaur hunters that used their sickle-shaped claws to attack and rip prey to shreds the thing is that most species of velociraptor were puny compared to the ones you see in the movie about the same size as a small chicken the Utahraptor on the other hand is one of the

biggest megaraptor found to date with adults growing up to 6.1 meters long and 1.5 meters tall they lived around 75 to 71 million years ago Velociraptors were quick and Swift and estimates show they could run up to 40 kilometers per hour meaning had humans been around at the time it would have been nearly impossible to outrun one unless you Usain Bolt not only were they fast but their curved claws which they held off the ground like folded switchblades were 24 centimeters long it's thought that the Utahraptor could deliver a death sentence to another dinosaur with

just one kick of its powerful leg and those vicious looking claws the next extinct animal was probably a real terror in fact there was a group of animals called Terror birds that are thankfully now extinct the biggest of the 25 species of Terror birds is called Forest rackers this big carnivorous flightless bird inhabited North America during the pliocene too early pleistocene Forest Raco stood around three meters tall and weighed in at 150 kilograms it had long agile legs and three-toed feet with long sharp talons it had a large beak that was hooked at the tip

much like a present-day eagle and it was a formidable Lethal Weapon that it could use to puncture the head of its prey one or two strikes is all it would take for this bird to bring down its prey it was once thought that this bird and early humans might have had a scuffle or two but the forest rakos went extinct more than 2 million years ago but despite this it's now a fact that early humans have been prey for other big prehistoric birds the giant extinct hast's Eagle was an apex predator from New Zealand fully

grown this true Raptor could weigh up to 15 kilograms and had a wingspan of up to three meters it had Talons five to six meters long and a vulture-like bill measuring 130 millimeters in length it was one of Nature's perfect killing machines the hast's eagle hunted another much heavier flightless bird called the mower until human settlers arrived and hunted the mower to Extinction with competition for food it's believed that some husks Eagles preyed upon smaller human adults and children there's proof of early humans being prey to Giant Birds a two million year old hominid skull

belonging to the famous Town child was carefully studied and was found to have puncture marks at the bottom of the three-year-old's eye sockets this ancient pre-human was probably attacked and scooped up by a large bird of prey perhaps something like an African crowned eagle and taken to its nest where it was eaten huge birds of prey attacking humans isn't something new in fact about 10 years ago a big eagle tried to snatch a baby in a park had it been the size of a hast's eagle the bird might have gotten away with its prey most

people don't like snakes but the majority of snakes are harmless unless they're poisonous or it's a constrictor big enough to eat you unfortunately the occasional eating of a human by a giant snake still happens pythons and anacondas in remote jungles and rainforests can get huge but none of these pythons or anacondas could get as large as the Titanoboa a huge plus-sized snake that lived some 58 to 60 million years ago and we should be thankful that titanoboa is extinct because everything was on the menu it hunted things like fish Turtles and huge crocodiles fossil measurements

show that this massive snake could grow up to 13 meters long and using length weight ratios of modern pythons as a guide estimated that titanoboa weighed around 1.3 tons some scientists don't know why this snake was so huge but some think it's because the temperature was 10 degrees higher than it is today and it was likely climate change that brought on its demise let's be honest we should all be glad that Tyrannosaurus Rex is now extinct it was the Jurassic Park movies that gave us the best idea of what it would be like to come

face to face with one of these monsters fully grown T-Rex could measure up to 40 feet long and 12 feet high fully grown it could weigh up to 5000 to to 7 000 kilograms and its powerful hind legs could Propel the meat-eating monster to 32 kilometers per hour at Short distances T-Rex had about 60 teeth and one T-Rex tooth measured 30.48 centimeters long and his bite force is one of the strongest of all known animals but there's something new that was discovered about t-rex we've always known that this dinosaur had a big brain but no

one was really sure how smart the Tyrant lizard really was until now estimates now put T-Rex in line with the brain capacity of baboons now just imagine that a meat-eating Terror that might out-think your escape plans good thing this and other dinosaurs went extinct because humans and dinosaurs don't mix lions and tigers are scary enough to deal with for some but if Smilodon was still around there'd be another big cat for humans to contend with Smilodon is perhaps one of the most famous of prehistoric animals and best known for its 11 inch long front teeth

fully grown they weighed about 160 to 280 kilograms and measured 1.8 meters long and about 1 meter tall at the shoulder the thing is that no one is sure how this big cat used those ridiculously long fangs because Smilodon has a wimpy bite compared to modern day Lions however one idea is that they likely had incredibly strong neck muscles and could sink their long saber teeth into the Flesh of their prey and for the record Smilodon and early humans probably ran into each other often since the big cat went extinct about 10 000 years ago

the Earth didn't always exist and it wasn't always hospitable for Life approximately 4.6 billion years ago our solar system was just a cloud of dust and gas known as a solar nebula and around four and a half billion years ago the solar system settled into its current layout Earth's Rocky core formed first with heavy elements colliding and Binding Together dense material sank to the protoplanet center and lighter material built up the crust the Earth suffered a huge impact sometime during its formation the catapulted pieces of the young Planet into space and formed the moon which

took up orbit around the young Planet this was known as the Paleo archaean era when the moon was still very close to Earth and likely caused huge tides of more than 300 meters high hurricane force wind blasted through the planet and The evolutionary process began the new Earth was a hellish place during this time the flow of the mantle beneath the crust caused the movement of large plates of rock on the planet's surface collisions of these plates created huge mountains and volcanoes that continually erupted shooting out huge amounts of lava and gases and the reefs

were created in the oceans at this time the proto-planet barely had an atmosphere but as the planet cooled gravity captured those gases from the volcanoes water was deposited on Earth by collisions of many comets and asteroids one other key thing for life to emerge on our planet aside from water is where it lies from its star the sun earth sits in What's called the Goldilocks zone which puts it close enough to the Sun to allow liquid water to exist on the Earth's surface before life even began or had a chance on Earth radiation from our

Star was the primary source of energy on our planet just as it is a day had very little oxygen if any at all and it theorized that solar energy provided the jump start that transformed simple organic molecules into more complex ones transforming them into the building blocks of biology and life likely developed in undersea alkaline Vents and was probably based on ribonucleic acid a nucleic acid which is present in all living cells rather than deoxyribonucleic acid an organic chemical containing genetic information and instructions for protein synthesis at some point during this time a common ancestor

gave rise to two main groups of Life bacteria and archaea although exactly how this happened is still uncertain for billions of years tiny microbes and single-celled organisms evolved and began feeding on methane around 3.6 billion years ago and at the 3 billion year mark evidence of viruses were found however some argue that viruses could be as old as life itself sometime during Earth's early history the planet took a turn towards habitability when a group of microbes known as cyanobacteria evolved with the ability to turn light and water into energy and released oxygen in the process

dissolved oxygen caused iron in the oceans to rust and sink to the sea floor which formed striking red banded iron formations but between 2.4 and 2.1 billion years ago something incredibly remarkable and disastrous took place in this early cycle of life the poisonous waste produced by these evolved photosynthetic cyanobacteria oxygen built up in the atmosphere causing anaerobic bacteria to die off leading to the Earth's first mass extinction which some call the great oxidation event how can oxygen be toxic you might be asking oxygen became toxic because of the high levels and overwhelmed the natural antioxidant

defense system of any living microbe or bacteria at the time basically these cyanobacteria in the form of algae ate themselves to death and caused a global Extinction but the worst was about to come around 2.3 billion years ago the earth froze over as the possible result of the great oxidation event and volcanic activity on the planet slowed down over time the ice melted which resulted in more oxygen being indirectly released into the atmosphere this gave way to the neoprotozoic era where protozoans such as paramecium amoebas and melanocerillium evolved the first animal cells were different from

plants and these cells began feeding on plants and became the first herbivores but during this era the Earth froze again at least two more times which stunted evolutionary development however life finds a way and during this time fungi worms and other small bilaterally symmetrical animals survived and evolved fast forward to the Paleozoic Era complex life forms began to develop including fish arthropods mollusks and echinoderms plants started to show up on the surface of the Earth and air-breathing animals started to walk crawl and Slither on land meanwhile sharks horseshoe crabs and Starfish began to fill the

oceans at the beginning of the devonian period insects started to take form and ferns were the common land plant a prehistoric jawless fish with bony armor called the cephalospice and crabs large sharks hagfish and ratfish evolved this gave way to the Carboniferous period where the climate on Earth was thought to be tropical with little change during the seasons and gave rise to a new wave of strange creatures plants covered the Earth during this time and the organic deposits of plant debris formed the world's first coal deposit which humans are still burning today the growth of

these forests increased oxygen levels in the atmosphere which peaked to around 35 percent compared to the 21 it is today this alone might explain the size of the giant creepy crawlies that emerged some animals and insects may have developed in water and grew bigger as a way to protect themselves against the high levels of oxygen at the time one of those were giant insects called Mega neuropsis which closely resemble modern day dragonflies had wingspans of 63 to 68 centimeters and could be seen in the skies during this period one incredibly detailed fossil of a huge

dragonfly that died 320 million years ago was discovered to have a wingspan of 0.75 meters deadly poisonous centipedes two meters long crawled around with Mammoth cockroaches and scorpions as big as one meter long amphibians began to diversify and reptiles evolved into forms much like modern day lizards with a backbone allowing them to live and move on land these amphibians were also huge and some species were predatory resembling modern-day crocodiles armed with sharp teeth and reaching lengths of almost 6 meters long and like modern day crocodiles and alligators some evolved to have a thicker scaly skin

which solved the problem of their bodies drying out if they were out of the water too long and for the first time amphibians evolved to lay amniotic or air-breathing eggs on land and that changed everything since these animals could now live out of and away from water sources the Carboniferous period gave way to the Permian period that began approximately 300 million years ago just 50 million years before the dinosaurs all the continents during this period existed as one large landmass called Pangea the first large plant eating and meat-eating animals evolved during this time some of

these creatures could be mistaken for dinosaurs but they were actually more closely related to mammals and reptiles one of these bizarre creatures was diplocerapsis it looked a little like a salamander that averaged around one meter long but its head was shaped like a boomerang another new reptile on the planet was the iconic dimetrodon which grew to about five meters long and had a large Sail on its back which is likely used to regulate its body temperature during the Permian period mammals were increasing in dominance the biggest of these were creatures classified as gorgonopsians which were

a class of giant bear-like animals that all had different teeth that were specialized for different functions these animals could be either herbivores or carnivores and vary in size from less than a kilogram to more than a ton one group of these creatures were known as cyanodons their name means dog-like teeth and these animals had social behavior and there is some fossil evidence that shows they hunted in packs in the oceans fish with true bony skeletons evolved sharks and Rays flourished as well as sponges and coral on land insects evolved with adapted mouth parts that allowed

them to pierce and suck but around 252 million years ago the Permian era came to an abrupt End by a cataclysmic event that caused mass extinction in 2001 scientists made a chilling Discovery a massive Comet or asteroid similar to the one that put an end to the dinosaurs wiped out the giant reptile predecessor's 200 million years earlier but how did scientists come to this conclusion molecules of helium and Argon gas were found locked in carbon in high proportions that could have only come from space it's estimated that the asteroid or Comet was between 6 and

12 kilometers wide in diameter researchers say the strike would have released the energy one million times greater than the biggest earthquake of the last century aside from this discovery there's some evidence that current day Siberia and China experienced volcanic eruptions on an unimaginably massive scale and those eruptions created dust and ash clouds that blocked out sunlight not only that but over 1 million years 3 million cubic kilometers of lava poured out of the ground covering the entire planet in a layer 10 meters thick the asteroid impact combined with volcanic activity was the proverbial Blast From

A double-barreled shotgun the Earth was once again a very unhappy place the combination of these two events resulted in What's called the Great dying 90 of all marine animals and 70 of all land animals that were alive during this time perished the extinction event of the Permian Triassic here at 252 million years ago marked the beginning of the Mesozoic Era of the Triassic Jurassic and Cretaceous Period which lasted 186 million years during the Triassic era there was one vast supercontinent called Pangea which was mostly vast deserts with a hot and dry climate surrounded by a

huge ocean called pantherlassa Dinosaurs would begin to evolve during the mid to late Triassic period when we talk about dinosaurs we immediately imagine towering and thundering animals like Tyrannosaurus Rex but new research shows that the dinosaurs and their pterosaur relatives evolved from extremely small ancestors proof of this theory was discovered in Madagascar when a newly discovered reptile species was found named kangana Von Kelly or tiny bug Slayer it lived some 237 million years ago and stood just 10 centimeters tall it's one of the first small animals found from the root of the ornithora family tree

and is an important discovery the miniaturization event in which it lived served as a survival strategy for early on authorance and where on its teeth showed the tiny creature preyed on insects this eliminated the need for them to compete with their relatives for meat furthermore researchers of this tiny dinosaur relative showed that feathers and other fuzzy skin coverings found on the later true dinosaurs and pterosaurs likely originated to protect the tiny Dino ancestors from the extreme climate of the mid to late Triassic period when the first dinosaurs evolved the Triassic marked the rise of the

reptiles mainly the arkosaurs or ruling lizards and the rapsids or mammal-like reptiles for reasons unknown the Arkansas had an evolutionary Edge muscling out their mammal-like cousins and evolving by the mid to late Triassic into the first true dinosaurs such as Eoraptor and herrerasaurus thank you dinosaurs were divided into two main branches ceriskian which means lizard hipped and ornithischian or bird-hipped dinosaurs Eoraptor was at the root of the soriskian family tree it was only 91 centimeters long and weighed about 11 kilograms it had long legs that allowed it to run fast and its front paws had

sharp claws that helped it to grab prey herrerasaurus was more advanced in evolution than the Eoraptor because it had a joint in its lower jaw it had a large skull and its jaws were armed with the sharp teeth of a carnivore it averaged in length from three to six meters and had five fingers on each paw with blunt claws storicosaurus was another early true dinosaur that was about two meters long with a large skull as long as its femur and there were 13 to 14 sharp teeth in its upper and lower Jaws it has short

front pores with five fingers it had long hind legs that allowed it to run fast storricasaurus was a predator that weighed about 30 kilograms and although this dinosaur was kind of small it probably had no trouble dealing with larger prey the arapdoor herrerasaurus and historicosaurus are prime examples of the rapid evolution of predatory dinosaurs 225 million years ago but at the same time the first plant-eating dinosaurs appeared in the fossil record pisanosaurus was a one meter dinosaur that weighed 2 to 9 kilograms and had closely spaced teeth forming a continuous Edge for grinding plant matter

by the late Triassic period there were at least 15 different dinosaurs during the Jurassic period Earth climate changed from hot and dry to a much more humid and subtropical climate forests of ferns cycads and conifers began to cover the planet and the air was warm moist with tropical breezes during the beginning of this period the breakup of the supercontinent Pangea continued and accelerated laurasia the northern half of the continent broke up into North America and Eurasia the southern half called gondwana began to break up during the mid-juracic the eastern part Antarctica Madagascar India and Australia

split off from the Western half of Africa and South America new oceans flooded the spaces in between huge mountains rose on the sea floor and pushed sea levels higher onto the continents it was all this water that created the humid and subtropical climate deserts began to turn green palm tree-like cycad and Conifer trees such as the araucaria and pine were abundant the oceans became full of diverse and Abundant Life and at the top of the ocean food chain with the marine reptiles the plesiosaurs with their long necks and paddle-finned flippers among them were giant Marine

crocodiles sharks and Rays ichthyosaurs squid-like cephalopods coil shelled ammonites sponges snails and mollusks were abundant in the ancient oceans coral reefs grew and expanded quickly in the warm Waters and microscopic Plankton increased rapidly to the point that they may have turned parts of the ocean red the earliest known bird archeopteryx took to the skies in the late Jurassic likely evolved from an early Celia sorian dinosaur archeopteryx had to compete for airspace with pterosaurs flying reptiles that had been buzzing the sky since the late Triassic meanwhile insects such as Leaf Hoppers and beetles were abundant as

many of Earth's earliest mammals scurried around the feet of dinosaurs it was at this time that the dinosaurs began making their Mark in a huge way literally small quadrupedal plant-eating dinosaurs gradually evolved into multi-ton Giants the plant-eating sauropod named Brachiosaurus was 16 meters tall and stretched out to around 26 meters long and could weigh as much as 25 tons another herbivorous sauropod giant named Diplodocus was 27 meters long and weighed between 30 to 50 tons the sheer size of these dinosaur Giants may have stopped the attacks of a bulky meat-eating dinosaur that walked on two

powerful legs who also lived during this time the ominous Allosaurus this huge carnivore ranged in size from 7 to 12 meters long weighed nearly two tons and had 16 sharp teeth in its upper and lower jaw and like many predatory dinosaurs of the Mesozoic Era Allosaurus constantly grew shed and replaced its three to four inch teeth this dinosaur was fast models suggest that Allosaurus could run up to 34 kilometers per hour fossil evidence shows that Allosaurus preyed on stegosaurus and the plant-eating dinosaur fought back punching holes right through allosaurus's bones with its spiky clubbed tail

it could be why stegosaurus had a pretty long run and survived all the way up to the late Cretaceous but there were new predators that would come along that were as equally terrifying as the Allosaurus the North American Tyrannosaurus Rex could grow 12.5 meters long and weighed up to 8 to 10 tons although now some say it might have weighed half of these estimates but the T-Rex wasn't alone in the meat-eating dinosaur category in fact it was either outclassed or equal to two other sharp toothed Monsters the South American Giganotosaurus which had the same type

of build and weighed nine tons and the 10-ton northern African Spinosaurus still the T-Rex was a mean and nasty Predator if not downright unhygienic experts believe that shards of rotten bacteria-laden meat was constantly lodged in its closely packed teeth which gave the animal a septic bite that would eventually be fatal to its wounded prey of course this process would have taken at least several days or weeks and another T-Rex would probably reap the rewards scientists examining the T-rex skull determined it had the bite force of between 1500 to 5 000 pounds per square inch and

could take bites of Flesh in the 225 kilogram range but Tyrannosaurus Rex like Allosaurus had problems with prey itself it lived in the same region and time period as some armored plant-eating dinosaurs one of the most iconic dinosaurs next to T-Rex has to be Triceratops which means three-horned face all Triceratops had three horned skulls two massive horns were above the eye socket and one smaller horn was over the nose weighing around 6.5 to 13 tons the biggest Triceratops was 9 meters long from nose to tail the tips of their shoulders were three meters off the

ground Triceratops had teeth arranged in Dental batteries and each individual tooth was stacked in a vertical column of three to five teeth these formed rows with 36 to 40 tooth loaded columns this means that a single Triceratops could have 800 teeth at its disposal it had a narrow beak and powerful jaws that allowed it to grind down tough vegetation and trees it's one of the last non-avian dinosaurs to evolve at the end of the Cretaceous ankylosaurus is another of the most famous armored dinosaurs it was the largest ankylosaurid and the last of its kind it's

thought to have lived right up to the end of the Cretaceous Period the body of ankylosaurs was covered in bony plates it had a beak and teeth and four horns that projected backwards from its head its tail ended in a club which provided protection from predators this would have been useful since ankylosaurs lived alongside Tyrannosaurus Rex and other meat-eating predators at some point during the middle of the Cretaceous Period dinosaurs from the ornithopod family evolved into the popular hadrosaur or duck-billed dinosaurs they were large oddly shaped low slung vegetation eaters with tough beaks on their

snouts which were used for shredding vegetation these dinosaurs are believed to have lived in herds and were capable of walking on two legs sauropods became even bigger by the late Cretaceous Period you may have thought that brachiosaurus and Diplodocus were big but by the time the late Cretaceous Period rolled around there was another dinosaur that existed which could possibly be the biggest land animal that ever walked the Earth Argentinosaurus this Behemoth could be 30 to 40 meters in length and weighed between 50 and 100 tons it was a member of the titanosauria the dominant group

during the Cretaceous Period and was a herbivore like its earlier sauropod cousins there was also a strange new breed of dinosaur that lived 20 million years before they all went extinct they were called Pachycephalosaurus or bone-headed dinosaurs and have a bizarre looking skull with horns on the snout and around the base of the skull these could have been used to fight off the last of the big predators or even to show dominance over their own species of course there are more than 700 different dinosaurs that have been found so far but not enough time to

cover them all in one video there are some dinosaurs that lived in the colder regions when they were further south and within the Antarctic Circle during the Cretaceous during this time there could have been some snow and ice and temperatures as low as -10 degrees Celsius during the three-month long dark Winters there were a variety of different dinosaurs living in this polar zone in 2014 a skull section and upper and lower jaw bones were found of a miniature T-Rex called nanaxorus hoglandy it's believed that many dinosaurs had feathers to protect them from the elements and

this tiny T-Rex cousin was about six meters long it's now believed that all species of Tyrannosaurus Rex had feathers to protect them from the elements and nanoxaurus was no different other dinosaurs like the horned and duck-billed dinosaurs along with other small feathery predators parrot-like oviraptors and a small herbivore named Lela nasora lived in the polar region as well but their time would soon come to an end laughs [Music] Argentinosaurus is a massive herbivorous dinosaur that lived during the late Cretaceous Period approximately 90 million years ago in what is now Argentina it's known for being one

of the largest land animals that ever lived on the planet with estimates suggesting it may have reached lengths of up to 100 feet and weighed up to 100 tons its long neck made up around half its total body length and it had a relatively small head with the brain the size of a baseball the bones of Argentinosaurus are some of the largest ever discovered with thigh bones measuring over six feet long it was so big that it likely had to eat vast amounts of vegetation just to sustain itself and it had to eat up to

half a ton of food each day it probably faced very few Predators due to its sheer size and strength but Argentinosaurus was not the only big dinosaur roaming the planet Spinosaurus is a genus of theropod dinosaur that also lived during the late Cretaceous Period around 100 to 95 million years ago it's known for its distinctive sail-like structure on its back which is formed by elongated spines of vertebrae the first fossils of Spinosaurus were discovered in Egypt in the early 20th century but they were destroyed during World War II however new fossils have been discovered in

recent years providing more information about this unique and intimidating dinosaur it turns out that Spinosaurus didn't just hunt on land and is believed to have been a semi-aquatic dinosaur and spent a significant amount of time in and around water its adaptations for swimming included its long narrow snout which may have been used for catching fish and its webbed feet were able to propel the big scary sharp tooth Beast through water with ease however the jury is still out on just how fast a swim a Spinosaurus was and whether it spent all or just some of

its time in water Spinosaurus was one of the largest known carnivorous dinosaurs with some estimates putting it at over 15 meters in length and weighed 8 metric tons it probably safe to say that this dinosaur was scary at any size and speed But Dinosaurs weren't the only huge animals to live on Earth shastasaurus is a prehistoric Marine reptile that lived during the late Triassic period around 210 to 215 million years ago it's considered one of the largest known marine reptiles to exist on the planet with some shastosaurus reaching lengths of up to 20 meters long

its size is comparable to that of a modern blue whale making it one of the largest creatures to have ever lived in the oceans shastosaurus was a highly adapted swimmer its elongated body and paddle-like limbs suggest that it was capable of sustained efficient swimming its big oddly shaped tail was likely used for propulsion similar to that of a modern dolphin shastosaurus was a carnivore that probably fed on other marine reptiles and large fish its elongated snout filled with sharp teeth suggests it was a specialized predator but there were other specialized predators that would take its

place millions of years later lurking in the Deep always hunting and looking for its next meal Infamous Megalodon also known as the mega tooth shark is one of the most well-known prehistoric sharks that ever lived this huge shark lived during the miocene and pleocene epochs approximately 23 to 3.6 million years ago and was one of the largest predators to ever swim the oceans the size of Megalodon is the most impressive feature of this species the largest specimens of Megalodon found may have reached lengths of around 18 meters long and weighed up to 60 tons to

put this into perspective the largest known great white shark which is a close relative of Megalodon only reaches a maximum length of around 6 meters and a weight of just 2.5 tonnes one of the reasons for the massive size of Megalodon was its diet scientists believe that these sharks fed on a variety of large marine mammals including whales the bite force of Megalodon was estimated to be between 10 and 18 tonnes of pressure which is more than 10 times the bite force of the largest recorded great white shark this allowed Megalodon to easily bite through

the thick blubber of its prey but despite its impressive size and strength Megalodon went extinct around 3.6 million years ago however the exact cause of its Extinction is still debated to this day some theories suggest that the extinction of the Megalodon was due to a decline in the availability of its prey or competition with other predators foreign [Music] it's possible that one of the creatures that likely took over is the ocean's top predator might have been a giant known as Livia Turner this huge prehistoric whale lived approximately 12 to 13 million years ago during the

mayasin epoch it was one of the largest predatory whales to have ever existed with estimates suggesting it could also grow up to 17 to 18 meters in length and weighed up to 50 to 60 tons Olivia tan had large robust jaws with teeth that could grow up to 36 centimeters in length making them some of the largest teeth of any known carnivorous animal these teeth were blade-like and serrated which would have been well suited for tearing into the Flesh of prey based on the structure of its teeth it's believed that livitan primarily preyed on large

marine animals such as whales seals and other dolphins given their size and predatory nature it's possible that Livia tan could have attacked and even killed and eaten a Megalodon however it's important to note that there's no direct evidence of such an interaction as both species lived millions of years apart and in different Marine environments when it comes to huge land animals not many are aware of this next one [Music] paraceratherium would have been an intimidating animal to be around regardless if it was a herbivore or not they were hornless rhinoceros like mammals that lived during

the oligosini pock approximately 34 to 23 million years ago it's definitely one of the largest land animals that's ever lived with an estimated weight of up to 18 metric tons almost as much as three or four adult African elephants and a height of over 5.5 meters at the shoulder paraceratherium had a long flexible neck and a small head in proportion to its massive body it's believed to have been a herbivore feeding on leaves and other vegetation it had four large legs each with three toes which were adapted for supporting its weight and allowing it to

move across vast areas but this wasn't the only giant land animal running around on the planet there were three other giant animals roaming the land of North America around 23 to 20 million years ago deodon was one of the largest intellidons a group of pig-like mammals that roamed North America and Eurasia during the oligosine and myocene epochs it stood over two meters tall at the shoulder and weighed up to 498 kilograms deodon was an omnivore that ate almost anything it could catch or scavenge including small mammals reptiles birds and carrion it had a powerful bite

force and sharp teeth that could crush bones but the terror Pig daedon went extinct during the late Maya scene around 5 million years ago possibly due to competition with other carnivores or climate change asides from the mammals there were giant reptiles creeping around that you probably wouldn't want to meet like this next monster Megalania also known as the giant Ripper lizard was a prehistoric predator that lived in Australia during the pleistocene epoch it was a massive lizard that's estimated to have grown up to six meters long and weighed up to 680 kilograms making it one

of the largest lizards to have ever existed one of the most interesting things about Megalania is that it was able to climb trees this is surprising given its large size and heavy body but it's believed that Megalania used its strong claws to climb up trees to search for prey or escape from predators another interesting thing is that Megalania went extinct around 50 000 years ago this means that it's very possible humans were either hunted or the hunters of Megalania so far we've covered a few of the biggest animals that are now extinct but what are

the largest animals on the planet today if you answered Wales then you'd be correct and you'd get a Shiny Gold Star when it comes to toothed whales sperm whales are the largest and can grow up to 18 meters in length and weigh over 60 tons sperm whales are known for their remarkable ability to dive to incredible depths of up to 3 000 meters and stay underwater for over an hour making them one of the deepest diving mammals in the world sperm whales are apex predators and feed primarily on squid but also eat fish and other

marine animals they're also known for their ability to use echolocation to locate prey in the deep ocean now that seems huge but there is one animal that's much much bigger and its immense size and impressive abilities will simply blow your mind blue whales are the largest animals to have ever lived on earth they can grow up to 30.5 meters in length and weigh up to 200 tons making them even much larger than any dinosaur that ever lived blue whales have a heart the size of a small car weighing as much as 680 kilograms a blue

whale's heart only beats five to six times per minute but pumps over 10 000 liters of blood with each beat their blue gray skin pattern is actually made up of millions of tiny organisms called diatoms and here's something else remarkable we bet you didn't know blue whales produce some of the loudest sounds in the animal kingdom with their calls reaching up to 188 decibels that's louder than a jet engine [Music] they also have a lifespan of about 80 to 90 years putting them right up there with humans as the longest living mammals on Earth sadly

despite being the largest animal on the planet blue whales are also one of the most endangered species with only around 10 000 individuals remaining in the wild and that's a wrap on the largest animals video we hope you enjoyed learning about these incredible creatures and their impressive sizes if you found this video informative and entertaining let us know with a thumbs up and stay tuned here by subscribing to our channel for more fascinating content about planet Earth the universe and everything out there in the cosmos thank you for watching [Music] thank you