8 years ago
- [narrator] the world isfull of strange creatures, and the ancient past offersup stranger ones still. vastly different environmentscreated these species and it's very likely thatthese prehistoric creatures are so exotic, theenvironment of today's world couldn't even support them. these are five of thestrangest prehistoric creatures that ever lived. take, for example, helicoprion,a shark-like creature
with no idea of how itsteeth are supposed to work. generally, animalshave two sets of teeth: one upper and one lower,extending from left to right. helicoprion, however, had a single row of teethoriented from front to back, so that it was somethinglike a razor-like tongue. there've been tons ofguesses over the last century as to what helicoprionlooked like. made of cartilage,
its entire body structuredecays over time, leaving no fossilizedremains except for its teeth. we have severalexamples of tooth-whorls left behind by the species, but little referenceas to where it belonged on the helicoprion. more recent studies indicatethat the whorl was coiled inside of the mouth andwas used to slice up food as the creature openedand closed its mouth.
the creature might havebeen 40 feet in length with the whorlcarrying 140 teeth. but at the end of the day, all this is merely speculation. start with an elephant,shorten the tusks, flatten the snout. now elongate the lowerjaw several feet, making it wider in thefront than in the back. while you're at it, addtwo large flat teeth
to that lower jaw, pointing them outwardrather than upward. that's a platybelodon, and it's a pretty darnabsurd-looking creature. conventional wisdom has itthat this creature lived in swampy areas, whereit scooped up muck with its unusuallylarge lower jaw and let the food slidebackward into its mouth. more recently, however,
scientists came up withan even more bizarre image of its eating habits. it's now been suggested that platybelodons wrappedtheir tusks around trees and rubbed their teethagainst branches, breaking them free to be eaten. almost nine feet long, the jaekelopterus is thelargest known arthropod in the history of planet earth.
arthropods are invertebratecreatures with exoskeletons, including insects,spiders, and crustaceans. known as sea scorpions,jaekelopteruslived in the water, but not in salt wateras the name implies. it would have been foundin lakes and rivers, presuming there was some reason you wanted to findthis monstrosity. at least it couldn'tcome onto the land. while it did have legs,
they were toospindly to support it without the buoyancy of water. giant claws on folding arms could strike out and catch prey, then draw it back to its mouth. these arms andclaws, on their own, add another three feet tojaekelopterus's length. jaekelopterus lived400 million years ago, when there were few jawedvertebrates like fish
to provide competition. once evolution brought thesecreatures onto the scene, giant invertebrateshad to reduce in size to compete in thenew environment. elasmosaurus was a 46-footlong, two-ton water creature who shared the earthwith the dinosaurs. edward drinker cope first described theelasmosaurus in 1868, depicting it as a short-necked,long-tailed creature.
cope was an expert on lizards, and he expected elasmosaurusas having similar proportions to modern lizards. legend has it thatit was academic rival othneil charles marchwho corrected cope, insisting the head belongedon the longer segment, not the shorter one. the result was a creaturewith four flippers, a short tail, and aridiculously long neck.
to give a sense of proportion, the tail contained 18 vertebrae, while the neck contained 72. this made the neckmore than 20 feet long, longer than the total heightof today's tallest giraffe. cope and march went on tocompete in what's known today as the bone wars. together they discoveredover 100 prehistoric species, but they did so while sabotagingeach other's dig sites,
stealing each other's artifacts, hiring men to infiltratethe other's teams, publicly bad-mouthingone another, and more. speaking of giraffes, have you ever consideredwhat would happen if one could fly? because quetzalcoatlusis, in size, essentially a flying a giraffe. on the ground, it stoodabout 18 feet tall,
with a long neckand elongated beak. when flying, it hada 36-foot wingspan. and most recent estimates guessit weighed about 500 pounds. there's been debate onhow a creature that big could ever have achievedself-powered flight, and it also appears quetzalcoatlus was adeptat moving on the ground, using its wings as front legs. for more top listsjust like this,
be sure to leave alike and subscribe if you haven't already. and don't forget to checkout our other lists, and thanks for watching,and thanks for learning. (electronic music)
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