Prehistoric Marine

Learn all about the marine animals of the past! Read about an amphibious fish, a 30 meter long shark, an armoured fish, and much more!!! You can learn about these following animals:

-Ammonite

-Leedsichthys

-Dunkleosteus

-Megalodon

-Liopleurodon

-Hyneria

-Giant Orthocone

-Giant Mosasaur

-Anomalocaris

-Nothosaurus

-Cymbospondylus

Enjoy the new facts you will learn!!!

Cymbospondylus

Cymbospondylus was an early ichthyosaur that lived in during the Triassic Period.

They were one of the largest ichthyosaurs. It was different from other ichthyosaurs. It had a dorsal fin and a flaked tail. But it had an elongated snout like the others. It ate small to medium sized fish, belemnites, and cephalopods (ammonites). The long tail made it a fast swimmer.

These are very interesting animals!!!

Nothosaurus

Nothosaurus is an extinct sauropterygian reptile from the Triassic Period.

It was about 4 meters (13 feet) long. It had teeth like needles. It hunted by slowly approaching sneakily then putting on a last-minute burst of speed. It had very similar features to plesiosaurs.

These were very interesting animals!!!  

Anomalocaris

Anomalocaris are prehistoric animals that are closely related to arthropods. They were the first marine super predator. They lived in the Cambrian seas.

It swam by propelling itself through the water by making wave-like motions with their flexible lobes on the side of their body. It at least 11 lobes in total. It had very large compound eyes on stalks that had at least 16 000 individual lenses. It's mouth had a disc-like mouth. It had sharp, jagged prongs. Their were probably gills on top of each lobe. It reached up to 2 meters in length.

They fed on hard-bodied animals such as trilobites.

These were very interesting animals of the past!!!

  

Giant Mosasaur

The Giant Mosasaur is a prehistoric animal that is also known as Tylosaurus. They are very dangerous.

They could reach up to 8-12 meters in length. It was the dominant predator of the Late Cretaceous seas. They fed on fish (Xiphactinus and sharks), sea birds, and other reptiles like Archelon (prehistoric giant sea turtles), plesiosaurs, and other species of smaller mosasaurs. 

They were very dangerous animals!!!  

Giant Orthocone

The giant orthocone was a nautilus that looked like a squid in a cone. They existed 470 million years ago during the Ordivician Period. They were the top predator of there times. They lived in deep waters. They used their tentacles to crush up their prey. Their tentacle length measured up to 6 feet long. It ate everything that it could counting sea scorpions.

Giant Orthocones were very slow and very slow to turn so their prey had to stay on it's shell side for their survival.

Giant Orthocones are probably the biggest nautilus ever!!!

  

Hyneria

  

Hyneria was a prehistoric predatory fish that lived in the Devonian Period about 360 million years ago.

The estimation of the length was 2, 3, or 4 meters. It's weight could have been 2 tons. There was a theory that it's fins were so strong it could haul itself onto land!

Hyneria is a species of lobe-finned fish.

Hyneria are very dangerous fish from the past!!!

Liopleurodon

    

Liopleurodon was a carnivorous marine reptile. It was a short-necked plesiosaur. It lived in the Middle Jurassic Period.

The liopleurodon had four limbs which were used like paddles suggests that it was a powerful swimmer. It could have been an ambush predator.

The estimation of the length was 10.5 meters (34 feet) long.

This was the most dangerous marine predator of the Middle Jurassic Period seas that covered Europe!!!

Megalodon

Megalodon was a prehistoric extinct species of sharks. They lived from 28-1.5 million years ago. It has the strongest bite ever. Megalodon was like a much stronger and much bigger Great White Shark.

The estimation of the megalodon was 30 meters (98 feet).

They fed on cetaceans (dolphins and small whales), large whales, pinnipeds, porpoises, sirenians, and giant sea turtles.

These are probably the largest sharks of all time!!!

Dunkleosteus

Dunkleosteus was a prehistoric fish. It was one of the largest artrodire placoderms ever to live durind the Late Devonian period about 380-360 million years ago. It measured up to 10 meters (33 feet). It's weight was 3.6 tonnes (4.0 short tons). They were large, carnivorous, and dangerous predators. 

It was a powerful swimmer. It was cannibalistic. It was an armoured fish. They didn't have any teeth so instead they had two sharp bony plates, it had a beak-like structure. It had the second most powerful bite of any fish in the world (the megalodon had the strongest bite).


These are very interesting powerful, terrifying, and armoured creatures from the past!!!