Strangest Beasts To Ever Die

Dodo Bird

The Dodo was a flightless bird that lived on the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. Standing a little more than three feet tall and weighing about 45 pounds, the dodo enjoyed an environment free of natural predators. The birds were first discovered by European sailors in 1598 and were extinct by 1681, killed off by settlers and the dogs and pigs they brought to the island. In a classic example of how lost species can affect an ecosystem, the calvaria tree stopped sprouting seeds not long after the dodo died off. Some scientists believe the seeds would sprout only after being eaten and digested by the dodo and possibly other birds.

Giant Ground Sloth

Standing on its hind legs, this Ice Age mammal could reach nearly 20 feet tall with claws as large as a man's forearm. They weighed as much as three tons, with massive hind quarters, narrow shoulders and small heads. They also had bones in their throats that allowed them to vocalize. Giant ground sloths were herbivores native to grassland environments of South America and southern North America. They died out approximately 12,500 years ago at the end of the Ice Age.

Parapropalaehoplophorus septentrionalis

This armadillo-like mammal lived 18 million years ago, ranging in size from a couple hundred pounds to two tons. Unlike armadillos, whose plates are jointed and movable, this fellow's plates were mostly immovable and probably a bit awkward for a critter the size of a VW Beetle. P. septentrionalis belonged to a now-extinct group of mammals called glyptodonts that lived almost exclusively in South America.

Quetzalcoatlus

Named after the ancient Aztec feathered-serpent god, this giant flying reptile had a wing span of up to 50 feet. How a carnivorous creature with wings this large could have flown without putting incredible stress on its wing bones has been a matter of debate. But scientists agree that it could have flown with slow, deliberate flapping, much like large modern sea birds. Quetzalcoatlus was not a dinosaur but a pterosaur, meaning "winged lizard." Both pterosaurs and dinosaurs died out at the same time, however, 65 million years ago.

Tyrannosaurus Rex

This famous, fearsome beast was a huge, fast-moving, meat-eating machine during Earth's Cretaceous Period, the Age of Dinosaurs. It is still unclear whether T-rex did more eating as a result of hunting or scavenging - his arms were too short to reach his mouth and his hands had only two fingers instead of three so he was unable to grasp. Today T-Rex may be a pop culture icon around the world, but there is still much to be learned about him. He became extinct, along with the rest of the dinosaurs, 65 million years ago.

Pristerognathus

These early mammal ancestors from South Africa lived approximately 250 million years ago. Their large skulls, powerful jaws, and menacing teeth suggest they were successful predators. About the size of large dogs, their legs were positioned more vertically underneath their bodies than the legs of reptiles. They died off in the Triassic-Jurassic extinction about 200 million years ago, which opened the door to dinosaur domination of the earth.

Trilobite

This segmented, hardshelled scavenger and predator also lived in Earth's ancient seas. As extinct creatures go, trilobites were very successful in terms of longevity and diversity. They were part of the first group of complex life forms that appeared on Earth 500 million years ago. They ranged in size from a few millimeters to a foot or more in length and had compound eyes, like many modern insects. Trilobites died out during the end-Permian mass extinction 245 million years ago.


The Shark Eater: Dunkleosteus

During Earth's "Age of Fishes" 400 million years ago, Dunkleosteus was a genuine sea monster. This aggressive predator, more than 11 feet in length with a skull two feet long, was armor-plated. Instead of mere teeth, it had two long bony blades that snapped and crushed its prey. Dunkleosteus dined on all kinds of seafood including early sharks, which didn't have a chance to diversify and grow to great sizes until Dunkleosteus went extinct about 360 million years ago.

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