Big animals are scary.
But what if they were even bigger?
Sharks the size of ships, apes that could scale buildings, rats of unusual size - not
only are they frightening to think about, they were once all real.
Here are some everyday animals that were terrifyingly big in prehistoric times
Apes
Gorillas might seem pretty big, but they had nothing on Gigantopithecus, an ancient ape
that stood 10 feet tall and weighed over 1,000 pounds.
These guys were about the closest you could get to a real-life King Kong.
Gigantopithecus lived in what is now China, but it died out about almost 100,000 years
ago, probably because its massive size came with — you guessed it — a massive appetite.
Plenty of cryptozoology enthusiasts have theorized that some Gigantopithecus might secretly still
be alive today, though, which would explain legends like the sasquatch and the yeti.
"Abominable snowmen?!"
"The Tibetans call them yeti!"
Still, until some sort of incontrovertible proof arrives, we'll have to chalk this one
up as one of the many interesting Bigfoot theories out there.
"The are NO abominable snowmen.
There are NO sasquatches.
There are NO bigfeet!"
Sharks
Probably the most terrifying creature to ever swim in the ocean was the 50-foot megalodon,
a shark so enormous it could swallow a great white in one gulp.
According to National Geographic, megalodon means "giant tooth," which is a fitting name
for an animal with jaws powerful enough to crush an automobile.
"It's a megalodon."
Since tasty human divers weren't splashing around 10 million years ago, it's theorized
that megalodon instead satisfied its voracious appetite by eating live whales.
Despite being so powerful, megalodon went extinct about 2 million years ago, perhaps
due to a combination of cooling waters and competition from more social predators like
orcas.
As with Gigantopithecus, some believe these giant sharks still prowl the waters today,
thanks largely to a 2013 Discovery Channel mockumentary titled Megalodon: The Monster
Shark Lives.
Understandably, 79 percent of viewers came out of this broadcast believing the colossal
sharks were still alive, and the network subsequently earned major criticism from shark experts.
Rats
"What about the ROUSes?"
"Rodents of Unusual Size?
I don't think they exist."
Anyone who relied on the Dread Pirate Wesley for their zoological information will be shocked
to learn of Josephoartigasia monesi, the so-called "fossil rat" from present-day South America.
Despite this nickname, these "rats" more closely resemble today's capybara, a South American
animal which is the largest living rodent in the world.
According to National Geographic, these sharp-toothed fossil rats could've trampled right over any
capybara today, considering they were bigger than a bull and weighed over 2,000 pounds.
Time to start building that better mousetrap!
Snakes
Probably every millennial kid suffered from nightmares after they watched an enormous
CGI snake swallow Jon Voight in the 1997 thriller Anaconda.
Real-life anacondas don't get quite so enormous, but 58 million years ago, the tropical jungles
of Colombia were home to an even bigger snake called Titanoboa.
According to the Smithsonian, the fossil evidence of Titanoboa reveals a snake that grew to
over 40 feet long, and weighed over 2,000 pounds.
To get a sense of just how big this snake's girth was, imagine it slithering in front
of you, and imagine that the tallest part of its legless body was about as high as a
human waist.
Get the picture?
Needless to say, Titanoboa could eat just about any other animal it wanted to, with
the LA Times counting crocodiles and giant freshwater turtles among its favorite dinners
- not trains.
Crocodiles
All of us hairless apes might think we're at the top of the food chain, but let's face
it, the biggest badasses on Earth are definitely crocodiles.
Just ask Betty White.
"Come and get it!"
With lifespans of up to a hundred years and a mouth of razor sharp daggers for teeth,
Crocodiles have existed for millions of years.
They swam with the dinosaurs, and they're still swimming today.
However, they're much smaller now than they used to be.
The ocean-dwelling Machimosaurus rex could reach 30 feet in length, while the freshwater
Sarcosuchus grew to a jaw-dropping 40 feet, about the length of an average bus.
According to Newsweek, these colossal crocodiles had teeth comparable to those of a Tyrannosaurus
rex, and their heads stretched over 5 feet long.
Just imagine the nightmares one of these crocs would have given Captain Hook!