Sometimes you might find yourself wishing that dinosaurs still roamed the Earth. After all, Jurassic Park (and its sequels) were popular a reason. Dinosaurs are the coolest things that walked this Earth. (Wait. You don’t think that? So it’s just me then? Well, alright.)
If you wanted to imagine a world where dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures still roamed the Earth hanging out with humans, you’d definitely want to leave out these 11 terrifying creatures.
Just imagine having to run from dog sized scorpions, and fight giant eagles trying to kill you. Yeah that kind of scary. Take a look.
1.) Millipedes bigger than your cat.
Yeah these things existed. *shudder*.
2.) Spider scorpion hybrids.
This little thing called Attercopus was an early spider, but it came with a scorpion-like stinger. No thank you.
3.) Sharks with teeth the size of a human hand.
The Megalodon shark was the apex sea predator back in good old days. Compared to modern great white sharks Megalodon was a giant, growing up to 50 feet long. Here it is compared in size to a T-Rex.
4.) A 10 foot ape that weighed 1,000 pounds.
During the Pleistocene era, the Gigantopithecus liked to hang out in the forests of what is today China, India, and Vietnam. This thing was massive, and must have been incredibly strong. Even though it was a vegetarian, I would not want to mess with one of them.
5.) Birds that could eat their prey in a single bite.
Terror Birds were giant birds that could not fly, but could run super fast. Like as fast as a cheetah, according to some researchers. They were nearly 10 feet tall and had giant heads (three feet long) that allowed them to devour small animals whole, in a single bite.
6.) A 65 foot snake.
This is the stuff nightmares are made of. Madtsoia was one of the biggest snakes that ever lived. Scientists suspect it dined on dinosaurs, before going extinct 45 million years ago.
7.) 20 foot tall sloths.
Sloths today are small, slow, and relatively harmless creatures. That wasn’t always the case though. Megatherium lived during the Pliocene era and were the size of elephants today. They could also walk two legs. Terrifying.
8.) Eagles that ate humans.
Birds of prey are small and majestic these days. Back in prehistoric times though, they used to be giant terrors, especially eagles. They were known to hunt and kill human children. The biggest ancient eagle every found was Haast’s eagle in New Zealand. It had a 10 foot wingspan and could reach speeds of up to 50 MPH.
9.) Human sized penguins.
37 million years ago, humans and penguins were on the same level, literally. Palaeeudyptes klekowskii was just a hair shorter than modern day humans. It probably wouldn’t be that scary to have around, but just imagine being hunted by a giant penguin (which could happen, you never know). No thanks.
10.) Spinosaurus. ‘Nuff said.
The Spinosaurus (which you might recognize from Jurassic Park III) was actually a larger and more terrifying predator than the famous T-Rex. What it had on the T-Rex is that Spinosaurus could live and hunt in water. Don’t mess with this guy.
11.) Giant terrifying crocodile.
The Sarcosuchus lived during the Cretaceous and was twice as long as today’s crocodiles. This creature was a terror, and ate other dinosaurs.
Living back when these giants roamed the Earth would be more terrifying than cool. These aren’t the only extinct creatures that were horrifying… it’s just the tip of the terror iceberg. Be thankful the only creatures you have to worry about today is your roommate’s annoying cat.
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