Top 10 Terrifying Prehistoric Sea Monsters 10. Megalodon Megalodon is probably the best-known creature
in the list; it’s hard to keep the idea of a shark the size of a school bus out of
pop culture. Plus, science-minded entertainment sources like the Discovery Channel love creatures
that could pass for a movie monster. Despite the popular idea that Megalodon coexisted
with dinosaurs, they lived from 25 to 1.5 million years ago, meaning that at best they
missed the last dinosaur by 40 million years. On the other hand, this meant they might have
still been around for the first humans. Eek. Megalodons swam the warm oceans that were
their breeding grounds and food. Sometimes, it seems nature has our back. 9. Liopleurodon If Jurassic Park had an aquarium scene, and
in it. Although the actual length of these beasts is contested (some scientists have
claimed lengths in excess of 50’), most agree that it was around 20 feet in length,
with a full fifth of that being pointy-toothed head. When the mouth of the “smaller”
estimate is still plenty large to eat you whole, I think that is perfectly huge enough. Scientists have tested the paddle design of
these creatures on small swimming robots and found that although they would not have been
incredibly fast, they were incredibly agile. They also would have been able to make short,
fast burst attacks like crocodiles, which in no way makes them any less intimidating. 8. Basilosaurus Despite the name and appearance, that is not
a reptile, but actually a whale (and not even the most fearsome on the list!) Basilosaurs
were predatory ancestors of modern whales, and could be 50 to 85 feet long! It is described
it was. Imagine swimming in the ocean with an 80+ foot long alligator-snake-whale. Now
imagine being afraid to even take a bath ever again. Physical evidence suggests that basilosaurus
did not have the cognitive ability of modern whales, nor the ability to echolocate, and
could only navigate in 2 dimensions (so no deep diving or breaching). So at least this
monster whale was dumber than a bag of prehistoric hammers and could not chase you if you dove
or scrambled out on dry land, probably forever. 7. Jaekelopterus rhenaniae Nothing about the words “sea scorpion”
are comforting to begin with, so this should not come off as too awful: this was one of
the two largest arthropods to have ever lived, reaching a length of over 8 feet of armored,
clawed horror. Most of us freak out at the thought of inch-long ants and foot wide spiders,
so it’s easy to imagine screaming like a little girl if you ever stumbled across a
living one of these. On the plus side, sea scorpions (Euripterids)
have been extinct since before the dinosaurs, having been wiped out in the Permian Triassic
extinction event (which killed 90% of all life on earth) and are only survived, to some
degree, by horseshoe crabs, which are even less formidable than regular crabs. There
is no evidence that any sea scorpions were actually venomous, but the structure of their
tail is similar to a modern scorpion’s, so it might have been. 6. Mauisaurus Mauisaurus was named after the Maori god Maui,
who pulled the islands of New Zealand up from the sea floor with a fish hook, so already
you know this thing is going to be enormous. The neck of Mauisaurus measured up to 49 feet
long; the longest proportionate (and really, “actual”) neck of any living thing aside
from some sauropod dinosaurs. Their overall length was about 66 feet, and that ridiculously
long neck had plenty of vertebrae, implying that it was flexible. Imagine a snake strung
through a sea turtle with no shell, and you have an approximate idea of what this thing
looked like. It lived back in the Cretaceous era, meaning
that creatures that jumped in the water avoid Velociraptors and Tyrannosaurs had to contend
with these; the jury is out on which is worse. As far as science can tell, Mauisaurus was
limited to the New Zealand area, showing that the area that would one day become Australia
and its neighbors was always a land of terror. 5. Dunkleosteus Dunkleosteus was a 30 foot long carnivorous
tank. It was outlasted by sharks, but I am sure that is small consolation for the variety
of creatures this beast ate. Instead of teeth, it had bony ridges, like a turtle. It has
been calculated that they had a bite force of 8,000 pounds per square inch, putting it
on par with crocodiles and T-Rex in terms of being history’s strongest biters. They
also believe, based on the evidence in the skull regarding its musculature, that it could
have opened its mouth in one fiftieth of a second, meaning it vacuumed food into its
guillotine of a mouth. The plates that made up the “teeth” changed
as the fish aged from a solid, rigid jaw to segments that allowed it to hold prey easier,
and made it more effective in biting through the bony plate armor of other armored fish.
In the arms race that was the prehistoric ocean, Dunleosteus was a predatory super tank. 4. Kronosaurus Kronosaurus is another short-necked pliosaur
(like Liopleurodon up at number 9), and like Liopleurodon, its overall length has been
contested. It was a “mere” 30 feet long and the longest teeth in its massive mouth
were up to 11 inches long. This is why it was named after Cronus, the king of the old
Greek Titans. Guess where it lived? If you guessed “Australia”,
then you have been paying attention to life (and are correct). The head was up to 9 feet
long. They could eat an entire modern man whole, and still have room left over for half
of another. It has also been suggested that since their flippers are so similar in design
to those of modern sea turtles, that they may have crawled out onto land to lay eggs.
You can be sure no one was digging up these thing’s nests to get at the eggs. 3. Helicoprion These sharks grew to be about 15 feet long,
and had a lower jaw that was made of a “tooth whorl”. It looks like a cross between a
circular saw and a shark, and when you mix apex predators with power tools, the world
quakes in fear. Helicoprion’s teeth were serrated, implying
that they were definitely carnivores, but there is some debate as to whether their teeth
were in the front of the mouth, as shown in the picture, or if they were farther back,
which would suggest a softer diet, like jellyfish. However it was arranged, it clearly worked;
Helicoprion survived the Permian Triassic extinction, which means they may have been
smart enough to create bomb shelters. Or maybe they just lived in the deep sea. 2. Livyatan melvillei Remember me mentioning “hypercarnivorous”
whales? Well here it is. Imagine a cross between an orca and a sperm whale. Livyatan melvillei
was a whale that ate other whales. It had the largest teeth of any animal to ever use
their teeth to eat (elephant tusks are bigger, but they just look impressive and help them
smash things; they don’t eat with them) topping out at 1.18 feet. They lived in the
same oceans and ate the same food as the Megalodon, so this whale actually had to compete with
the largest predatory shark ever. Not to mention their head was 10 feet long
and featured the same echo-locating equipment as modern toothed whales, making them much
more effective in murky water. In case it was not obvious, this beast was named after
the leviathan, a giant sea monster from the bible, and Herman Melville, who wrote Moby
Dick. If the great white whale had been one of these, it would have eaten the Pequot and
everyone aboard as a snack. 1. Giant Stingray What grew 17 feet across, had a 10 inch poison
spike in its tail and was strong enough to drag a boat filled with people? In this case,
a prehistoric super-fish that is still lurking around in fresh and brackish waters from the
Mekong river to northern Australia. Stingrays have been around since a few million years
after the dinosaurs died out, and have proven to be a successful design, much like the sharks
they descended from. The giant stingrays use that tried and true
ancient design, but have somehow managed to survive ice ages and even the catastrophic
Toba event. They were featured on Animal Planet’s River Monsters, and despite the host’s tendency
to exaggerate damn near everything, they are incredibly dangerous to fool around with,
even if you don’t know you are fooling around with one. They are notorious for putting their
neurotoxin covered spike completely through limbs. I guess, on the plus side, if there
is one, at least they won’t try to eat you.

Author Since: Mar 11, 2019

  1. So i'm only 0:50 in and my first question is
    "How the fuck did the Megalodon get 10th place?"
    If he got 10th then number one better give me a heart attack every time i close my eyes in the fucking shower!

  2. How can you make a top 10 prehistoric sea monsters list without including the first/second largest animal ever. Also I know this is getting confusing, but there's also this creature called Predator X (best name ever) which could've existed (they've only found one huge bone ) which (if it did exist) would be much larger than anything else.

  3. Just a small correction on the Helicoprion, they were actually chimaeras and not sharks. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helicoprion

  4. Great list man. Didn't you have the original list last year with music instead of narration ? If you still remember about it do you know the name of the song you used in the original video?

  5. consider a list of introduced flora and fauna that were well intentioned but turned out to be disastrous…such as cane toads, rabbits and  starlings in Australia and kudzu in the Southern states of America…and the huge Asian carp now found in the great lakes and some rivers that leap out of the water water when disturbed by passing boats that can cause injury…the list could be very long for either.

  6. dunkalostis (dont care if i butchered) didnt have teeth those were fangs summarized quote from the ppl who found it

  7. I love this channel and I love your voice and sense of humor but, pardon me, at 2:36 it's an  arthropod not an anthropod!

  8. I didn't know there was a sea dino named after Maui…that's cool. They really should make the Maui myths more widely known though…even here in New Zealand, hardly any kid knows of them any more.

  9. i wish most prehistoric animals did not get killed off 😩 it would be awesome to have these odd creatures still living with us.

  10. Interesting list. Since there was an original video of this, do you remebr what the music was used in that one? It was an ambient type instrumental.

  11. WOW, you know I really enjoy your videos, and your narration and your voice, one thing I do not like is your besmirchment of JW, who I greatly admire and enjoy watching River Monsters.

  12. Booo you suck for talking trash about Jeremy Wade, he doesn’t exaggerate anything.. if anything he approaches stories on the show as a pessimist until he has some proof

  13. So you were there 1.5M years ago to KNOW that they were around then? And of course you know that they were extinct before / after other dinosaurs. You no doubt will say radium dating says so. So tell me why do we have man's footprints fossilized along the side of dinosaur footprints. Don't believe me … Google it just as you did to get this information. Lolol

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