Craziest Extinct Animals
#15 Tasmanian Wolf
The Tasmanian Wolf is believed to have been extinct for nearly sixty-five years. Despite its appearance and its popular name, this animal was not in fact a species of wolf, nor was it a dog, which it also resembled.
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15:
Tasmanian Wolf
The Tasmanian Wolf is believed to have been extinct for nearly sixty-five years. Despite its appearance and its popular name, this animal was not in fact a species of wolf, nor was it a dog, which it also resembled.
14:
Long-necked camel
The oldest fossils date back to around 7 million years ago. The creature disappears from the fossil record during the late Pleistocene, around 20,000-10,000 years ago.
13:
Arsinoitherium
When alive, it would have superficially resembled a rhinoceros, and have been about 1.8 metres (5.9 ft) tall at the shoulders, and 3 metres (9.8 ft) long. The most noticeable feature of Arsinoitherium was a pair of enormous knife-like horns with cores of solid bone that projected from above the nose, and a second pair of tiny, knob-like horns on top of the head, immediately behind the larger horns.
12:
Dinoceras mirabile
Uintatherium was a large browsing animal. Its most unusual feature was the skull, which is both large and strongly built, but simultaneously flat and concave: this feature is rare and not regularly characteristic of any other known mammal except in some brontotheres. Its cranial cavity was exceptionally small due the walls of the cranium being exceedingly thick. The weight of the skull was mitigated by numerous sinuses permeating the walls of the cranium, like those in an elephant's skull.
11:
Paraceratherium
Paraceratherium is the largest land mammal known, larger than the largest species of mammoths. Adult Paraceratherium are estimated to have been 5.5 metres (18 ft) tall at the shoulder, 10 metres (33 ft) in length from nose to rump, a maximum raised head height of about 8 metres (26 ft), and a skull length of 1.5 metres (4.9 ft). Weight estimates vary greatly, but most realistic and reliable weight estimates are about 20 tonnes.
10:
Mastodon
While mastodons had a size and appearance similar to elephants and mammoths, they were not particularly closely related. Their teeth differ dramatically from those of members of the elephant family; they had blunt, conical, nipple-like projections on the crowns of their molars, which were more suited to chewing leaves than the high-crowned teeth mammoths used for grazing; the name mastodon (or mastodont) means "nipple teeth" and is also an obsolete name for their genus. Their skulls are larger and flatter than those of mammoths, while their skeleton is stockier and more robust.
9:
Dinotherium
The Dinotherium lived in Europe, Africa and Asia from around 20 million years ago to around just a few million years ago in the Miocene and the Pliocene periods.
8:
Irish Deer
Herds of the Giant Irish Deer lived in Europe and Ireland during the late Pleistocene until about 10,000 or 11,000 years ago. It stood six feet high at its shoulders, the size of Moose, and its broad antlers spanned ten feet.
7:
Meganeura monyi
Meganeura monyi or a Giant Dragonfly was a species of flying insect that lived during the Carboniferous period, about 300 million years ago. It is believed to be related to modern dragonflies, and is the largest known flying insect species - it had a wingspan of about 2½ feet (75 centimeters).
6:
Dinichthys
Dinichthys lived about 400 million years ago. It was about 30 feet long and weighed over 2 tons. It probably was not agile and waited in the plants of the sea floor to ambush its prey.
5:
Dunkleosteus "terrible fish"
There is always a bigger fish... Or at least this was one of the problems shark has 400 million years ago when the Dunkleosteus was still alive. It measured up to 11.5 ft long and had huge jaws with scissor-like cutting serrated, razor-sharp bones instead of teeth. Its skull was was over 2 feet long . It used to attack and eat sharks.
4:
Pteranodon
Pteranodons lived in Europe and North America during the Cretaceous around 75 million years ago. They stood 6 feet tall and had wingspans of over 20 feet, sometimes greater than 30 feet. They ate fish, crabs, mollusks, insects and also scavenged, but had no teeth. They were likely able to soar for long distances could even walk very well.
3:
Saber Toothed Tiger
You think that a lion is scary? Take a look at the Saber Toothed Tiger - one of the scariest cats that ever walked the earth.
2:
Zeuglodon
The Zeuglodon, or Basilosaurus, "King of the Reptiles", lived during the Eocene about 40 to 50 million years ago. It was an early, 44 toothed, 55 to 75 foot long whale species with small hind legs. Many believe that the famous Loch Ness Monster is actually a descendant of the Zeuglodon.
1:
Tyrannosaurus Rex
Tyrannosaurus Rex is probably the most famous and the scariest of all dinosaurs. It is a rather unknown fact that it is now considered to be a vegetarian. The most close descendant of the T-Rex is the domestic chicken.
