This series is quickly becoming one of my favourites on this channel.
You know how it works, I find some weird or scary animals from the distant past and then
I we all say thank you that theyre not around on me.
That sound fun?
Heres 10 more then, my name is Danny Burke and this is the Top 10 Extinct Animals We
Shouldnt Bring Back To Life Part 4.
Starting off at number 10 now we have the Epicyon[a].
That name roughly translates to -more than dog- … and youre about to see why.
It lived in North America for about 15 million years where it really was the top dog.
They grew to about 5ft in length and weighed up to 300 pounds.
They had a massive head, even bigger than mine, and very powerful jaws.
This resulted in their skull looking more like a lions than any canine species.
This big dog needed to be big because it shared its territory with ancient big cats and bears.
Epicyon would have regularly clashed with them for food and territory.
Scientists think its main prey would have been the Aepycamelus, a type of camel that
lived in North America at the time.
Thats right, if youre from North America, there could have been giant dogs chasing camels
on the exact spot where youre sitting.
Now theres a thought …
Next up at number 9 we have Pelagornis Sandersi.
You could also call this one the Seagull from hell.
They lived around 25 million years ago.
Their wingspan is estimated to be between 20 and 24ft - that is the largest wingspan
on a flying bird ever discovered - the wingspan is about the size of an orca whale.
Its also twice the wingspan size of the modern day wandering albatross.
Its proportions are so insane, scientists are surprised it could even fly at all - it
could have weighed up to 88 pounds, considered to heavy to fly.
Right now, the best theory is that it could fly because of its relatively small body and
long wings and also that it spent most of its time over the ocean.
In fact, they thought it could only take off by hopping over the edge of a cliff.
Coming in at number 8 now we have Acrophyseter[b].
This is an extinct group of sperm whales that lived between 13 and 5 million years ago.
Modern day sperm whales are known for their large teeth but they had nothing on Acrophyseter.
Unlike modern day sperm whales, they had huge, deeply rooted teeth in their both their upper
and lower jaw - modern day sperm whales only have that in their lower jaw.
It had a short and pointed snout.
This, couples with the robust, curved front teeth suggests that Acrophyseter hunted large
prey, using its back teeth for shearing the meat apart.
They had big heads, were very strong and had upwards curved y shaped jaws.
They were fairly big creatures, thought to have reached up to 14 ft in size - not as
big as modern day Orcas, about the size of Giant Dolphins.
Strangely enough, a lot of the scientific demate that revolves around this creature
is about wether or not it had a top lip.
I guess its just going to be one of lifes big unanswered questions …
Moving on to number 7 we Anomalocaris[c].
This creature is also known as the -abnormal shrimp- which I love - its a perfect description.
Its thought to be one of the first predators on Earth - thats quite a titles.
It had a large head and a single pair of large, compound eyes on stalks that comprised of
around 16,000 lenses.
Its mouth was made up of 32 overlapping plates, four large and 28 small, that resembled a
pineapple ring with the center replaced by a series of serrated prongs.
Looking at models of them them, they resembles small shrimps of today - except they were
a lot bigger than that - they could be over 3.3 ft long and had two arms over 7 inches
long that protruded from their mouth with barb like spikes coming out.
They ate hard sea creatures for breakfast lunch and dinner - this is presumed because
of the robust spines on their appendages.
Basically, you wouldnt want one of these getting their mouth around your leg.
Next up at number 6 we have Edestus[d].
This shark lived from 400 to 300 million years ago.
If youve watched one of our previous videos in this series, you may think it looks a bit
like Helicoprion, the one with the big circular saw teeth.
Well, they belonged to the same family but Edestus had more of an arc of teeth on both
the roof and floot of its mouth.
After its discovery, scientist were baffled as to how it used this teeth formation to
catch and eat its prey.
For a while, it was thought it used its teeth like scissors, bring the top and bottom together
to crush and mash its prey into digestible chunks.
Now though, the theories change.
New Research by Wayne M Itano of the University of Colorado suggests that Edestus used its
outwardly projecting teeth in a vertical thrashing manner - it literally thrashed its prety to
death - hey, whatever works right!
With quick and strong up and down movements, the shark would have slashed and cut up its
prey in seconds before ingesting it whole.
I think weve all ate like that once or twice in our life, when were really hungry - but
this is what Edestus did every day.
Coming in at number 5 now we have Argavantis[e].
These birds were bloody huge, probably 2nd only in wingspan to the Pelagornis that we
talked about at number 9.
For me though, these things were even scarier - imagine vultures that stood taller than
adult human - yeah, now youre starting to get it.
They lived between 9 and 6.8 million years ago and had territories of up to 200 square
miles.
They would fly these incredible distances looking for food.
Because of its huge size, its thought that this bird may have actually been unsuited
to hunting its own preyy and instead lived as a scavenger, taking kills from other carnivores.
Just like our giant seagull friends from earlier in the video, scientist have been trying to
figure out how Argavantis was able to fly as it too seems to break the known laws of
bird flight - physically speaking, of course, Im not saying there are actual laws about
birds flying.
Skeletal evidence suggests that its breast muscles were not powerful enough for wing
flapping for extending periods and that it may have relied on mountain slopes or headwinds
to take off.
Moving on to number 4 we have Attercopus[f].
This is an extinct species of arachnids that lived around 390 million years ago.
All of you arachnophobes may be glad that its extinct when you hear about it.
It resembled modern day spiders except for the fact that it had a tail - thats weird
enough on a spider but wait for it - the tail was basically a scorpion tail.
Thats right, if youve ever wondered how to make a big spider even scarier to some people
- put a massive scorpion tail on the back of it.
For a number of years after its discovery, scientists thought that Attercopus was the
ancient ancestor of modern spiders.
Then - they rethought their position - there was an important difference between the two.
Modern spiders produce silk to spin webs.
Attercopus is thought to have also produced silk but it used that silk to wrap eggs, lay
draglines or construct burrow walls.
Its this key difference that has led scientists to believe that Attercopus is probably related
to the ancestor of modern spiders, but is not actually a spider itself!
Next up at number 3 now we have The Purussaurus[g].
I need to make an apology here at this point in the video.
In a previous video, I described a creature known as Sarcosuchus as -the- giant crocodile.
I have since learnt that there was more than giant crocodile that used to exist.
There were quite a few.
The Purussaurus was one of the.
Its the second largest giant crocodile to ever waddle the Earth.
It lived across South America about 8 million years ago.
This monstrous beast had a very stout, robust head full of large sharp teeth that could
snag prey and never let go.
The region it lived in is now made up of the Amazon rainforest but back then it looked
very different as was actually part of a vast inland sea.
That sea was full of giant crocodiles, whales, huge rodents and massive turtles.
Despite the size of the prey and the competition, Purussaurus was the top predator and when
you see the size of the reconstructions - you can see just why …
Moving on to number 2 now we have Cameroceras[h].
This is thought to be the giant ancestor of the giant squid - so it was pretty giant.
It first appeared in the fossil records during the middle of the Ordovician era, around 470
million years ago.
It had a huge cone like shell to protect it.
Of course, as you might expect for an ancestor of the squid, it had big old tentacles for
catching its prey.
Thought to be between 20 and 30ft - it was a formidable predator.
Its thought they were stalkers, ambushing their prey that moved across the floor.
You may think it would be difficult to be sneaky with a 20ft cone on your back - but
that was also the reason it had to ambush as the cone would have made chasing prety
too difficult.
Some scientists actually think that for the biggest of these creatures, they never even
moved - they just sat in the dark at the bottom of the ocean, waiting for the next meal to
pass by …
And finally at number 1 we have The Megalanis[i].
This creature is essentially the great granddaddy of the Komodo Dragon - an impressive size
modern creature - but it had nothing on this ancestor.
They weighed over 1300 pounds - thats more than 10 times the weight of an average human
- they also grew to almost 18ft long.
The megalanis almost made it to the modern era aswell, dying out just 50,000 years ago.
If you look at when some of the other creatures on this list went extinct, 50,000 years ago
is basically yesterday.
They lived and died out in Australia which means the earliest aboriginal people may have
lived alongside them.
With enough coordination, they may have been able to take them down - but it would have
been risky, one bite from this creature would be enough to cripple even the most experienced
hunter.
When you hear about ancient creatures like this, its no wonder that ancient cultures
so often mention dragons existing - they kind of really did …
Alright guys, like I say every video - those were some big, scary old creatures but there
are plenty more big scary old creatures to talk about so let me know if you would like
a part 5 or if you want me to continue another series I do.
I hope youre having a nice day, thanks for watching as always, my name is Danny Burke
and Ill see you all in the next video!