The modern day crocodile and Elephants and Rhinos are all big and scary and all, but what of their ancestors? Did they have ancestors who would dawrf them in ferocity and size? Well, the answer is yes. For a lot of the scariest and largest animals of our modern time, there was once a scarier and larger version of it. Therefore, we’re going to go through a list of 10 of the largest and most horrible ancestors of animals we know today.
1. Titanoboa
Snakes are one of the most feared animals on the planet and are because of their speed, their dangerousness and often their size. However, imagine a snake that was simply garagnatuant in size. The Titanoboa is the largest ever recorded species of snake known to man. The largest ever was as long as 42 feet and weighed around 2,500 lbs. It’s diet consisted of giant crocodiles and large turtles.
2. American Lion
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The modern day Lion is the second largest cat in the world after the Tiger. They can weigh up to around 550 lbs. However, as recently as 11,000 years ago, an American Lion lived that grew up to nearly 8 feet in length and weighed closer to 800 lbs.
3. Deinosuchus
Today’s Crocodiles are fairly large and can measure up to nearly 16 feet in length. However, there was once a crocodile that lived that was 40 feet long and weighed nearly 10 tons. They used to prey on large dinosaurs and anything else that came near them in the water.
4. Archelon
The Largest turtle that has ever lived was an absolutely enormous animal that would dawrf even the largest of its descendants today. These turtles used to grow to around 14 feet long and almost 16 feet wide!
5. Megalania
If you think the modern day komodo dragon is the largest land lizard at around 10 feet in length then imagine it’s ancestor which could grow over double that length to nearly 25 feet. That’s one enormous lizard for sure!
6. Paraceratherium
Today’s largest living land mammal is the African Elephant. However, thousands of years ago, there was a descendant of the Rhinoceros that was even larger and is the largest-ever terrestrial land mammal to ever live. It was called the Paraceratherium and this is what it looked like compared to a modern day Elephant.
7. Megalodon
The modern day Great White shark is the most feared fish in the sea. However, imagine that this fish was three times larger and had even more teeth and fed on whales? That’s the Megalodon for you that excited approximately 1.5million years ago.
8. Gigantopithecus
The largest Ape that has ever lived was the Gigantopithecus which grew to heights of 10 feet tall and weighed over 12,000 lbs dwarfing any living ape in our modern day.
9. Megatherium
The modern day sloth is seen as a very comical animal that slombers around and sleeps most of the day. However, a long long time go, there lived an ascnedant of the sloth that would grow to around 20 feet in length.
10. Hippopotamus gorgops
After the Elephant and the rhino, hippopotamus are the biggest land mammal on the planet weighing it at around 4,000 lbs. However, some 5-2 million million years ago, there was a prehistoric hoppo more than twice that big. The Hippopotamus gorgopsmgrey to lengths of 14 feet with a shoulder height of up to 6.9 feet and a weight of 8,600 lbs. What a creature!