10 Best Extinct Animals

Galvasean

About a year ago Wired Science did an article on the ten coolest extict animals that aren't dinosaurs*.

http://www.wired.com/science/planetearth/magazine/16-02/st_best

Can you spot your favourite?



*Yeah yeah, I know the elephant bird is technically a dinosaur :P

kiffer

Galvasean wrote: »

About a year ago Wired Science did an article on the ten coolest extict animals that aren't dinosaurs*.

http://www.wired.com/science/planetearth/magazine/16-02/st_best

Can you spot your favourite?

Number 9 would be closest... the Glyptodon would be my favourite out of that lot... but I don't like the shape of the shell of the Doedicurus clavicaudatus in the picture, still a cool animal though.

The Gnome

No Terror Birds (Phorusrhacidae)? Pfff...

happyoutscan

Easy, the Carcharodon megalodon. Have cage dived with great whites and it was awesome, to see the megalodon from a cage would be indescribable (I'd imagine, seeing as no one can describe it eh?).

marco_polo

No room for Indricotherium?

happyoutscan

marco_polo wrote: »

No room for Indricotherium?

There's always room for Indricotherium!

Capt'n Midnight

moschops
trilobites
dunkelosteus
and loads of critters from the cambrian

Galvasean

happyoutscan wrote: »

There's always room for Indricotherium!

Apparently not, it's proper name is Paraceratherium.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indricotherium#Taxonomy_and_species_of_Paraceratherium

Galvasean

Thought I'd bump this thread when I stumbled across an article on National Geographic about 7 jumbo-sized prehistoric creatures:
http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/news/chiefeditor/2009/02/biggest-animals-of-all-time.html

marco_polo

Cool I never knew there was such a thing as a giant penguin.

That picture of Jaekelopterus really sends a chill down the spine, I was considering it for the feature slot in few weeks time only for there is not a whole lot known about him apart from his size.

Weidii

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

moschops
trilobites
dunkelosteus
and loads of critters from the cambrian

Does opebinia look like an annelid to anyone else?

marco_polo

Weidii wrote: »

Does opebinia look like an annelid to anyone else?

Its clearly a species of elephant



Some have classified it as representative of the ancestral stock from which arthrapods and annelids arose. Other have grouped it with Anomalocaris, in a stem group to the arthrapods. It is still a hot topic by all accounts, either way it was a pretty distinctive looking fellow.

http://www.animalpicturesarchive.com/view.php?tid=3&did=26096

Capt'n Midnight

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/09/080911-ancient-amphibian.html

An ancient, giant, salamander-like amphibian with a particularly nasty bite has been identified from a 240-million-year-old fossil, scientists report.

Dubbed Kryostega collinsoni, the Antarctic creature was about 15 feet (4.57 meters) long and chomped down on prey using sharp teeth that protruded from the roof of its mouth.
...


"You could think of Kryostega as a giant salamander," said study team member Christian Sidor, a paleontologist at the University of Washington.

Make that an unusually toothy giant salamander: Its teeth were enormous compared to with other amphibians, according to Sidor.

Toothy Terror

Kryostega belonged to an ancient lineage of amphibians called temnospondyls, which had tiny teeth attached to their palates.

However the newly named amphibian's fossil had unusual palate teeth: Some of them were larger than the normal teeth on the edge of its mouth.

Zadkiel

I kind of liked Andrewsarchus since seeing Walking with Beasts
and Smilodons too.



+ 1 million for Megalodon though!

marco_polo

*Bump*. No need for a new thread for this item, can't find it posted elsewhere either. Found it on Livescience from last October. Nice gallery entitled 25 Amazing beasts:

Galvasean

marco_polo wrote: »

*Bump*. No need for a new thread for this item, can't find it posted elsewhere either. Found it on Livescience from last October. Nice gallery entitled 25 Amazing beasts:

They got Camarasaurus mixed up with Paralititan

cyberwolf77

You folks may find this little list rather intriguing.
http://listverse.com/2010/03/30/15-terrifying-and-little-known-prehistoric-monsters/

Enjoy.

marco_polo

Very nice a few creatures in there I'd not come across before.

Galvasean

Good old Estemmenosuchus. I still have that toy from when I was a kid.



And to think, my mother at the time questioned my decision to buy it. "Would you not rather get real dinosaurs??"* :rolleyes: Parents, whaddoo they know?


*Yes yes, I know Estemmenosuchus wasn't a dinosaur, but she was implying that they were made up monsters. Although to be fair on her with a name and appearance like that who could blame her?

Coriolanus

http://listverse.com/2010/04/04/10-more-terrifying-and-little-known-prehistoric-monsters/

Galvasean

I love these list things (great website BTW). Alas, so much is the variety on display here that I have ran out of tags...

Is that Phil Lynott? :eek:

Weidii

I honestly had never heard of Gigantopithecus. Shame!

What's that, Galvasean? Some sort of giant Arthropod...

Galvasean

It's a type of prehistoric sea scorpion, probably Pterygotus, which appears in an episode of Walking With Monsters.

Check it out at 1:40

Galvasean

Another top ten extinct animals list (funny how they can all be so drastically different):
http://oddee.com/item_88742.aspx