Worried about the extinction of pre-historic animals? Well you should be thankful!!

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INTRODUCTION
A whole lot of us are quick to say that the extinction of animals is a tragic thing without really looking at the mess Mother Nature has saved us from.
It’s a tragic thing indeed, but these beast had to go extinct for us to exist.

I’ll start by giving simple definition of terms that helps us understand the topic.
Extinction: this simply means “no longer in existence” or “inactiveness”.

Pre-historic: This means “very old” or a period before written records

1
Megapiranha

Anyone who’s has seen the movie Dying to get wet, Piranha 3D would definitely be thankful these river monsters are no longer in existence.
Megapiranha lived during the late Miocene period in Argentina and were between 71-128 centimeters in length.
The scientists were able to describe its tooth pattern but the rest of its body is not not known. It’s bite weight was assumed to be between 279 and 1068 pounds. Imagine what it could do to humans with its bite weight, wooah I could only imagine and it’s not a good one hahaha.

2
Megaldon

Would you look at that ? I bet you’re thankful it’s gone on extinction hahahaha.

The megaldon which means big tooth is a pre-historic animal who went on extinction. It has the scientific name “Carcharocles megalodon”. It was in existence during the early miocene to the late Pliocene

The megaldon (big tooth) was the largest sea predator that ever lived in the pre-historic times. It was three times as long as large as the great white shark. It had 267 teeth (on tooth was the size of a human) in 5 rows with a pound bite weight of about 40000.It was about 60ft long, a scary sea monster you wouldn’t want to see in real life.This horrifying animal lived for about 14 million years ago and went on extinction about 2.5 million years ago.It’s genus and family is still disputed by researchers, some say it belongs to the family Lamnidae (closely affiliated with the white shark family) while some say it’s related to the family Otodontidae, which is on extinction. It’s genus also argued by researchers as to be set either in Carcharocles, Megaselachus, Otodus, or Procarcharodon.

3
Helicoprion

You could probably be thinking the same thing I thought when I saw this.

Why does it have a saw-like teeth?
How does it even feed with that kind of mouth part?

Would you ever imagine it survived the mass extinction event ? Well it did. It lived in the ocean of the early Permian about 290 million years ago and eventually went extinct about 240 million years ago.It basically lived for the period of 50 million years, do the maths.
It was assumed to have exceeded 39 feet in length, making it the largest known eugeneodont.

I wouldn’t want to keep us pondering, see Feeding habits of the helicoprion

4
Pulmonoscorpius

Whoops, it’s a giant scorpion!

I remember when I was stung by a regular scorpion, I was so scared and thought I was gonna die. My life was hell for that period and I always pray never to have that kind of experience again, I hate scorpions and I know the most of us do.
Now look at this giant monster, I am probably the happiest that it went extinction hahaha.

The Pulmonoscorpius grew up to 70 centimeters long and had a massive stinger on its tail. It may have fed on smaller arthropods as it’s diet isn’t rightly known.
It’s fossils were found in Scotland and was assumed to have lived during the the Viséan epoch of the Carboniferous.

5

Kaprosuchus

The name Kaprosuchus means “boar crocodile” from the Greek word κάπρος, kapros ("boar") and σοῦχος, souchos ("crocodile"), this is because of it’s outstandingly caniniform teeth which look like those of a boar. Paul sereno and Hans Larsson, were the first to describe the genus in a monograph published in Zookeys in 2009. As you can see in the picture the kaprosuchus looks like a crocodile with long legs and it can run, I bet we humans wouldn’t have outran this creature hahahaha.

The kaprosuchus lived during the Cenomanianand went extinct during the mass extinction about 66 million years ago.
Click here for further read.

6
Andrewsarchus

Well, this is a very scary one but would be cute if it was smaller because it kind of looks like a fox 🦊.
Researchers says that the Andrewsarchus ate almost anything especially meat and equates it to the mammalian version of a velociraptor.It was declared as the largest terrestrial mammal because of the size of its skull as its was compared to the mesonychid.

It was presumed to have lived in the eocene epoch in what is now known as inner mangolia in China. It has the scientific name “Andrewsarchus mongoliensis”. It’s skull was discovered by the paleontological assistant Kan Chuen Pao in (1923). It is very horrifying and would eat a whole human in minutes.
This may not sound right, but it is believed that its descendants are goats and sheeps.

7
cameroceros

The cameroceras look like a giant octopus in a cone with its tentacles hanging out. This creature with the scientific name “Cameroceras trentonense” was about 9-12 meters long and it lived during the Ordovician period, about 470 million years ago.The creature was something not to mess with, regarding its huge tentacles and body size.

There is not clear evidence and detailed illustration of the life style and feeding of the creature but it was assumed to have fed on aphetoceras.

8
Gigantopithecus

Gigantopithecus (from the Ancient Greek γίγας gigas "giant", and πίθηκος pithekos "ape") is the largest ape that has ever lived and went extinct about 100,000 years ago.It was assumed to be about 10 feet tall and weigh 1,100 pounds although some disputed these figures and said they were smaller.It lived in the tropical forests of what is now India,China and Vietnam.

The extinction of these creatures proof the fact that bigger is not always better as stated by researchers. These creatures were believed to have fed on bamboo and vegetables due to the structure of their teeth and mouth parts.

The gigantopethicus was assumed to have gone extinct because of the climate change in the Pleistocene era and unavailability of food.

CONCLUSION
The extinction of these different creatures happened so we humans and other animals could exist. Also, it’s to maintain balance on earth, as it would have been impossible for us to live with these beasts due to their territorial life style.

REFERENCES

Megaldon
kaprosuchus
Andrewsarchus
Pulmonoscorpius,

Megapiranha

Helicoprion

Gigantopithecus

cameroceros

IMAGE SOURCE
1,2
3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

THANKS FOR READING!