Incredible Facts

The modern ocean is home to many incredible creatures, many of which we have no idea. You never know what lies there - in the dark cold depths. However, none of them can be compared with the ancient monsters that dominated the world's oceans millions of years ago.

In this article, we will tell you about pangolins, carnivorous fish and predatory whales that terrorized marine life in prehistoric times.

prehistoric world

Megalodon

The Megalodon may be the most famous creature on this list, but it's hard to imagine that a school bus-sized shark actually existed. Nowadays, there are many different scientific films and programs about these amazing monsters.

Contrary to popular belief, megalodons did not live at the same time as dinosaurs. They dominated the seas from 25 to 1.5 million years ago, which means that they missed the last dinosaur by 40 million years. In addition, this means that the first people found these sea monsters alive.

The home of the megalodon was the warm ocean that existed until the last ice age in the early Pleistocene, and it is believed that it was he who deprived these huge sharks of food and the opportunity to breed. Perhaps in this way nature has protected modern humanity from terrible predators.

Liopleurodon

If there was a water scene in the Jurassic Park movie that included several sea monsters of the time, the Liopleurodon would definitely appear in it. Despite the fact that scientists argue about the real length of this animal (some claim that it reached 15 meters), most of them agree that it was about 6 meters, with the pointed head of Liopleurodon occupying a fifth of the length.

Many people think that 6 meters is not so much, but the smallest representative of these monsters is able to swallow an adult. Scientists have recreated a model of Liopleurodon's fins and tested them.

In the course of their research, they found that these prehistoric animals were not so fast, but they were agile. They were also capable of making short, quick and sharp attacks similar to those of modern crocodiles, which makes them even more intimidating.

sea ​​monsters

Basilosaurus

Despite the name and appearance, they are not reptiles, as it might seem at first glance. In fact, these are real whales (and not the most intimidating in this squeak!). Basilosaurus were the predatory ancestors of modern whales and ranged from 15 to 25 meters in length. It is described as a whale, somewhat resembling a snake due to its length and ability to squirm.

It is hard to imagine that, while swimming in the ocean, one could stumble upon a huge creature that looked like a snake, a whale and a crocodile at the same time 20 meters long. The fear of the ocean would stick with you for a long time.

Physical evidence suggests that basilosaurs did not have the same cognitive abilities as modern whales. In addition, they did not have the ability to echolocate and could only move in two dimensions (which means that they could not actively dive and dive to great depths). Thus, this terrible predator was as stupid as a bag of prehistoric tools and would not be able to follow you if you dived or made landfall.

Racoscorpions

No wonder the words "sea scorpion" evoke only negative emotions, however, this representative of the list was the most creepy of them. Jaekelopterus rhenaniae is a special species of crustacean that was the largest and most intimidating arthropod of the time: 2.5 meters of pure clawed terror under the shell.

Many of us are terrified of small ants or large spiders, but imagine the full range of fear experienced by a person who would not be lucky enough to meet this sea monster.

On the other hand, these creepy creatures became extinct even before the event that killed all dinosaurs and 90% of life on Earth. Only some types of crabs survived, which are not so scary. There is no evidence that the ancient sea scorpions were venomous, but based on the structure of their tail, it can be concluded that this may indeed have been the case.

See also: A huge sea monster washed up on the coast of Indonesia

prehistoric animals

Mauisaurus

Mauisaurus was named after the ancient Maori god Maui, who, according to legend, pulled the skeleton of New Zealand from the bottom of the ocean with a hook, so that only by the name you can understand that this animal was huge. The neck of the Mauisaurus was about 15 meters long, which is quite a lot compared to its total length of 20 meters.

His incredible neck had many vertebrae, which gave it a special flexibility. Imagine a turtle without a shell with a surprisingly long neck - this is what this terrible creature looked like.

He lived during the Cretaceous period, which meant that the unfortunate creatures jumping into the water to escape the velociraptors and tyrannosaurs were forced to come face to face with these sea monsters. The habitats of the Mauisaurs were limited to the waters of New Zealand, which indicated that all the inhabitants were in danger.

Dunkleosteus

Dunkleosteus was a ten-meter predatory monster. Huge sharks lived much longer than dunkleostei, but this did not mean that they were the best predators. Instead of teeth, Dunkleosteus had bony growths, like some species of modern turtles. Scientists have calculated that their bite force was 1500 kilograms per square centimeter, which put them on par with crocodiles and tyrannosaurs and made them one of the creatures with the strongest bite.

Based on the facts about their jaw muscles, scientists concluded that the Dunkleosteus could open its mouth in one fiftieth of a second, absorbing everything in its path. As the fish matured, the single bony tooth plate was replaced by a segmented one, which made it easier to get food and bite through the thick shells of other fish. In the arms race called the prehistoric ocean, the Dunkleosteus was a real well-armoured, heavy tank.

Sea monsters and monsters of the deep

Kronosaurus

Kronosaurus is another short-necked lizard that looks like a Liopleurosaurus. Remarkably, its true length is also known only approximately. It is believed that it reached up to 10 meters, and its teeth reached up to 30 cm in length. That is why it was named after Kronos, the king of the ancient Greek titans.

Now guess where this monster lived. If your assumption was related to Australia, then you are absolutely right. The head of the Kronosaurus was about 3 meters long and it was able to swallow an entire adult human. In addition, after that, there was room inside the animal for another half.

Also, due to the fact that the flippers of kronosaurs were similar in structure to the flippers of a turtle, scientists concluded that they were very distantly related and assumed that kronosaurs also got out on land to lay their eggs. In any case, we can be sure that no one dared to ruin the nests of these sea monsters.

Helicoprion

This shark, 4.5 meters long, had a serrated lower jaw lined with teeth. She looked like a hybrid shark with a buzz saw, and everyone knows that when dangerous power tools become part of a predator that is at the top of the food chain, the whole world trembles.

The teeth of the helicoprion were serrated, which clearly indicates the carnivorous nature of this sea monster, but scientists still do not know for sure whether the jaw was pushed forward as in the photo, or slightly pushed deep into the mouth.

These creatures survived the Triassic mass extinction, which could indicate their high intelligence, but the reason could also be their living in the deep sea.

prehistoric sea monsters

Leviathan Melvilla

Earlier in this article we already talked about predatory whales. Melville's Leviathan is the most intimidating of them all. Imagine a huge orca-sperm whale hybrid. This monster was not just carnivorous - it killed and ate other whales. It had the largest teeth of any animal known to us.

Their length sometimes reached 37 centimeters! They lived in the same oceans at the same time and ate the same food as megalodons, thus competing with the largest predatory shark of the time.

Their huge head was equipped with the same sonar devices as modern whales, making them more successful in murky waters. If it was not clear to someone from the very beginning, this animal was named after Leviathan - a giant sea monster from the Bible and Herman Melville, who wrote the famous "Moby Dick". If Moby Dick were one of the Leviathans, he would certainly eat the Pequod with his entire crew.

SEA MONSTERS AND MONSTERS OF THE DEEP OCEANS
The waters of the oceans hide the most incredible landscape on Earth. But the light penetrates everything a few tens of meters below the surface of the water, and the ocean depths are pitch black. When exploring the depths, new types of strange creatures are constantly being discovered. In this article we want to tell you aboutsea ​​monsters and monsters of the deep oceans.

The water temperature in such places is extremely low, sometimes reaching 2-4 degrees Celsius. The main flow of nutrients comes from above, these are organo-mineral particles, which scientists call sea snow, or the remains of dead animals, with even more interesting name rain of corpses.

The oceans cover more than 70% of the surface of our planet, man has so far studied no more than 10% of everything that happens in the waters of the world's oceans. Today we want to talk about the inhabitants of the deep ocean, living at a depth of more than 200-300 meters. Life at such depths has left an imprint on the underwater inhabitants. For the most part, they have a transparent color, due to the lack of light, most of them have excellent eyesight, the rest are completely devoid of it. The bottom at depth is usually covered with silt, so those who move along the bottom have long stilted limbs.

Many animals use bioluminescence to light up or attract prey, some of them communicate in this way, indicate the danger that lies in wait for those who try to encroach on their lives. Thus, in the deep sea world, the means of communication by means of luminescence plays a greater role than communication by means of sounds. Thus, the inhabitants of the depths adapted to survival.

Having lowered to an incredible depth of over 400 meters, scientists stumbled upon a hitherto unknown creature, similar to a giant transparent snake, glowing along the entire length of its body. The dimensions amaze everyone, it was more than 41 meters long. This is something unimaginable, beautiful, causing respect and fear. Along the entire length of the body of this transparent snake, almost no visible to the eye transparent, thin tentacles, hitting which no fish can escape. Scientists hit a dead end when they tried to classify this animal, whether it is a colonial or an individual super-organism. And yet they decided that this is a super organism that catches fish in its hanging tentacles, as seen in the photo.

Once we wrote about a rare macropin fish, which has a transparent head through which its brain is visible, the eyes are located inside the dome and directed upwards. Scientists for a long time could not understand how this fish eats if it has no idea what it is, while its eyes are directed upwards. But after much observation, scientists have found that she is able to turn her eyeballs forward. So Makropina follows a forty-meter snake, and when she sees a fish stuck in the tentacles of a predator, she pulls it out, turns her eyes in front and swims away.
Unfortunately for scientists, it is not possible to catch all types of organisms they observe at a depth, so the dome of Macropina raised to the surface bursts due to pressure drop, which complicates the study of this species. Or how do you imagine lifting a snake more like a jellyfish to the surface from a depth of forty meters.
So scientists, not being able to obtain visual samples, only classify deep-sea inhabitants and draw conclusions by observing them.

In our time, scientists are very concerned about commercial fishing, when after catching tens of tons of fish that are in demand in the markets, only a small part of the catch is caught, the rest is simply thrown away. The discarded catch contains many deep-sea species that are rapidly declining in population.
Just like trees, fish bones have rings that indicate the age of the fish, usually fish live for about 20-30 years, but after learning data from sections of deep-sea fish, scientists were shocked, average age fished deep-sea monsters amounted to 200 years! So it turns out, the slaves that lived for two hundred years were exterminated overnight, the restoration of the population will take much longer than their catch. According to calculations, ocean fish could be caught by the middle of the next century, a figure that horrifies scientists.

Unfortunately, by collecting the catch from the bottom with nets, fishermen catch not only fish, but also corals, which are the most important for the life of the oceans.

Next, we want to bring to your attention a video of underwater filming of sea monsters, inhabitants of the depths.

From time immemorial, people have been fascinated by the beauty and power of the ocean. The bottomless waters of the seas have always kept some secret and danger. Stories and legends speak of monsters living in the depths of the sea.

Do you believe in them? Let's talk about the most famous of them.

Loch Ness monster

The most famous sea monster, which, by and large, is freshwater and not marine, but it is possible that it can live in salt water.

He is also often referred to as Nessie.

This unknown creature was first discovered in 1933, and there is still no clear evidence that it existed or exists.

His photographs appear in the press from time to time, but the scientific communities of all countries doubt their authenticity.

However, it remains one of the most popular legendary creatures, and many researchers are still trying to find evidence of its existence.

Although most scientists do not believe in Nessie, they admit that if it exists, it is a descendant of a “dinosaur” with a long neck and webbed feet.

They say that the animal is completely harmless and prefers to eat only fish.

The name Iku-Turso is translated as "thousand-horned" or "having a thousand tentacles." In modern Finnish, his name can be translated as "octopus"

In Finnish mythology, there is a mention of the malevolent Iku-Turso, who is also called the eternal Turso.

Lives in Atlantic Ocean, wreaking havoc wherever it appears.

Its appearance is quite interesting. He is depicted as a horned and bearded monster, which, judging by his appearance, obviously does not feed on fish.

They say that he used to be very dangerous, but the Finnish epic "Kalevala" says that one day Iku-Turso was captured and gave his word in exchange for the freedom to behave well.

Now he lives only in the ocean, and does not appear on land.

In Japanese folk tales, there is a character named Umibozu.

It is said that when the priest drowned, his spirit was filled with the power of the ocean and turned into a huge dark-headed creature that looked like a man.

However, Umibozu is not only the soul of a drowned priest.

This word is now called any restless souls of the dead.

Attempts to communicate with them cause a storm, and the ships sink.

Sometimes Umibozu asks the sailors to give him a barrel, but if you do, he will immediately grab you and drown you in the same barrel.

Hydra protects lakes and oceans, it can live in both salty and fresh water.

The Hydra is huge and almost impossible to kill.

If one head is cut off, two new ones will grow in its place.

The Greek hero Hercules, who for some reason is often called Hercules, ultimately defeated her.

He was helped in this by his nephew, who noticed that if one head is cut off and cauterized by fire, new heads will not appear.

So, Hydra was defeated by two brave Greeks, but the fact that even Hercules, known for his incredible strength, needed help to fight her, speaks of how powerful she is.

Any huge one is called Leviathan, but did you know that it is also mentioned in the Bible?

The Book of Job tells about him and describes him as a powerful fire-breathing creature of incredible size.

They say that it was impossible to kill him, and the monster died by itself from old age.

Most illustrations of the monster show it as a snake or whale with a long, thick body.

The powerful body, huge teeth and the evil nature of the Leviathan terrify all sailors who are forced to surf the oceans.

The sea monster lives in ocean waters off the coast of Norway and Greenland.

He is depicted as a giant squid or a man who has squid tentacles instead of arms.

The only thing that is constant about his appearance is his size. The Kraken is huge! Even the legendary gods and heroes are lost against its background.

Everyone who cares about life will beware of him if he moves by sea to Norway. This villain hates people and will do everything possible to destroy them.

Beware of it! However, he is not the most terrible. Scarier, bigger and more powerful than him...

Jörmungandr is a character in Norse mythology, also called Jörmungandr, Midgardsorm, the Midgard Serpent or the World Serpent.

Jörmungandr is so huge that it can easily embrace the entire Earth.

Have you heard of the Scandinavian god Thor, the incredibly powerful lord of lightning? So Jörmungandr will poison him to death during the end of the world, or Ragnarök.

Imagine, Jörmungandr also has poison! It would seem that its size alone is enough to easily deal with anyone.

Jörmungandr is the most dangerous and huge sea monster, which has no equal.

It turns out that sharks in the ocean are not the worst thing. There is a whole bunch of sea monsters, in comparison with which, even a great white shark will seem like a harmless crucian.

Briefly about the article: Who can really be sure what is hiding there, in the many kilometers deep of the ocean? Are all the stories about huge sea monsters fiction, or are the most natural monsters practically living next to us? Look for answers in the pages of the World of Fantasy.

Troubled waters

monsters of the deep sea

Understand death? Of course. This is when the monsters finally got to you.

Stephen King, "Salimov's Destiny"

Water - the best place for miracles. It's like a completely different world. Another universe is right next to us. The creatures living in the ocean are completely different from those on earth and look like real aliens in comparison. Biblical monsters came out of the "eternal sea", the giant Leviathan also lived there. People have already visited Mariana Trench- the deepest place on the planet - however, they still know very little about the inhabitants of those unthinkable depths that even Everest would not have reached, if we thought of turning it into water.

Now people no longer experience mystical horror of the sea and treat it exclusively as a consumer (for example, about 90% of toilets in Hong Kong are powered by sea ​​water). However, just a hundred years ago, terrible rumors about ships pulled to the bottom by giant octopuses were still walking around the port taverns, and science fiction writers inhabited the oceans with mystical creatures from other dimensions.

At the bottom

Remember what the old nautical charts looked like. Whales, dolphins, newts, snakes and shells "swam" in the oceans. Stories about the monsters that inhabited the expanses of water appeared almost before the seafaring itself and successfully survived to this day. Deep monsters, hungry for human flesh, can be found in any culture that has had contact with the sea. Ancient authors described encounters with these creatures in rather vague terms, mentioning luminous eyes, lion's mouth, horns, wool and other attributes of the classic "prefabricated creature" characteristic of those times.

When travel to other continents ceased to be as sensational as the current flights to the moon, the stories of "mortal dangers" lost their flavor of heroic tales and began to resemble the truth. In 1734, the Norwegian missionary Hans Egede - a man of sound mind and not prone to exaggeration - wrote about his voyage to Greenland:

The number of evidence of encounters with sea monsters has drastically decreased in our time, but even they are quite enough to think - where does such unanimity come from? Most often, a large serpentine body is described (about 10-20 meters, which cannot be compared with the old stories about sea dragons), or some kind of amorphous mass armed with tentacles.

It is interesting that most of these observations fall on the lot of fishermen or people of "land" professions who accidentally find themselves in the sea. And those who work closely with underwater world(crews of submarines, oceanographers and even divers), they rarely encounter the mysteries of nature.

It is generally accepted that some (but not the most significant) part of such stories is an ordinary hoax, and the rest is a mistake or an optical illusion. Everyone who has been on the high seas understands how difficult it is sometimes to identify this or that animal. Incessant excitement, natural optical distortions and significant observation distances - it is in such an environment that “monsters” are born. A writhing sea snake is likely to be an algae, and the slimy carcass of a giant octopus is an ordinary seal.

Here one could put an end to it, but literally in last years nature seemed to have mercy on scientists and gave them irrefutable evidence of the existence of one of the most popular sea monsters.

brake fish

In ancient times, people were afraid of another seemingly harmless sea "monster" - remora (from lat. remora- delay), that is, sticky fish. It was believed that these small shark riders from the Echeneid family (from the Greek. echein- keep, and naus- ship) can stick around the ship, completely stopping its course like sargasso algae. Pliny the Younger called them one of the reasons for the defeat of the fleet of Mark Antony and Cleopatra at Actium. On the coast of Africa and Australia, remora is used for fishing - live fish are tied to a rope and released into the sea. The stick swims up to the nearest turtle, fixes itself on it - and the fisherman easily pulls the prey ashore. A similar episode is described in Alexander Belyaev's story "The Island of Lost Ships".

kraken

Kraken is a legendary sea monster that supposedly lives off the coast of Iceland and Norway. There is no consensus regarding his appearance. He could equally well be an octopus and a squid. The Danish Bishop Eric Pontoppidan first spoke about the Kraken in 1752, describing it as a giant "crab fish" that easily drags ships to the bottom.

According to the bishop, the Kraken had the size of a small island and was dangerous for ships not so much by its predatory habits as by the speed of plunging into the depths of the sea - diving, it could create an extremely strong whirlpool. When the Kraken rested at the bottom, large schools of fish swirled around, attracted by its excrement. Pontoppidan also wrote that fishermen sometimes took risks and spread their nets right over the monster's lair, because this provided them with an excellent catch. On this occasion, they even had a saying: "You must have been fishing on the Kraken."

In the 18-19 centuries, the Kraken, with the light hand of self-taught zoologists, turned into a giant octopus, but at the same time the lifestyle of a cuttlefish or squid was attributed to it (most octopuses live at the bottom, squids in the water column). Even the world-famous naturalist Carl Linnaeus included the Kraken in the classification of real living organisms (the book "The System of Nature") as a cephalopod, but later changed his mind and removed all mention of him.

Some maritime disasters were attributed to the Kraken, and his relatives were giant octopuses under common name"Luska" - allegedly found in the Caribbean Sea (it is not surprising that the heroes of the film "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" will have to fight with a huge octopus). He was even called a "sea monk", although in the original this term referred to a creature washed up on the coast of Denmark in 1546 - a fish that, according to contemporaries, was "strikingly similar to a monk."

Snack for beer

And then the fairy tale became a reality. In 1861, the French ship Alekton brought a piece of the carcass of a giant squid to the shore. Over the next two decades, the remains of similar creatures began to be found along the entire northern coast of Europe (later it was found that the reason for this was changes in temperature regime seas that drove these creatures to the surface). The fishermen also began to notice that the skin of some of the sperm whales they caught had strange markings - as if from very large tentacles.

In the 20th century, a real hunt was carried out for the once legendary Kraken, however, either too young individuals (about 5 meters in length) or half-digested fragments of adults were found in fishing nets and in the stomachs of sperm whales. Luck smiled at researchers only in the 21st century.

Japanese oceanographers Kubodera and Mori spent two years trying to find the elusive Kraken by tracking the migration routes of sperm whales (these whales often prey on giant squid). On September 30, 2004, they arrived in a five-ton fishing boat near Ogasawara Island (600 miles south of Tokyo). Their tools were simple - a long baited steel cable, a camera and a flash.

At a depth of 900 meters, it finally “pecked”. The giant squid, about 10 meters long, grabbed the bait, got entangled in it with a tentacle and spent four hours trying to free itself. During this time, several hundred photographs were taken, confirming the extremely aggressive nature of this creature.

Live giant squids (architeutis) have not yet been caught. However, dead, well-preserved individuals are already available to the general public. In December 2005, the Melbourne Aquarium put on public display a seven-meter architeutis frozen into a huge piece of ice (the monster was bought for 100 thousand Australian dollars). Earlier this year, London's Natural History Museum displayed a nine-meter specimen preserved in formalin.

Can the giant squid sink ships? Judge for yourself. It can reach a length of over 10 meters (evidence of twenty-meter individuals is not confirmed by anything). Females are usually larger. Since tentacles make up about half of the body length, the weight of this mollusk is measured in only a few hundred kilograms. This is clearly not enough for a large vessel (especially considering that the giant squid, like its small relatives, is completely helpless out of the water), however, given the predatory habits of this creature, it can be assumed that architeutis is a theoretical danger to swimmers.

Cinematic octopuses (“Rise from the depths” or “Pirates of the Caribbean 2”) are able to effortlessly pierce the skin of ships with tentacles. In practice, this, of course, is impossible - the lack of a skeleton does not allow cephalopods to deliver a "pinpoint strike". They can only act on tearing and stretching. AT natural environment Giant squid habitats are quite strong - at least they don't give up to sperm whales without a fight - but, fortunately, they rarely rise to the surface. However, small squids are capable of jumping out of the water to a height of up to 7 meters, so it is not worth making unambiguous conclusions about the "combat" qualities of architeutis.

The eyes of the giant squid are among the largest among all living creatures on the planet - over 30 centimeters in diameter. The most powerful suction cups of tentacles (up to 5 centimeters in diameter) are complemented by sharp "teeth" that help to hold the victim.

An even larger species of giant squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni) has recently been classified. Outwardly, they are slightly different from architeutis ( bigger sizes, with short tentacles dotted with hooks instead of “teeth”), but are much less common, and only in the northern seas and at depths of about 2 kilometers. In the 1970s, a Soviet trawler caught one juvenile, and another was found in 2003. In both cases, the length of the squid did not exceed 6 meters, but scientists calculated that an adult of this species grows to at least 14 meters.

Summing up what has been said, as of 2006, the legendary Kraken can be safely identified as a squid. Octopuses or cuttlefish, comparable in size to the mollusks described above, have not yet been found. Go to rest on the sea - be on the alert.

Sun in claws

If we talk about crustaceans (and the Kraken was at first considered something like a crab), click shrimp (Alpheus bellulus) would be ideal for the role of a sea monster, if they were larger and more aggressive. By sharply closing the claw, these crustaceans produce a miniature "explosion" in the water. The shock wave spreads forward and stuns small fish at a distance of up to 1.8 meters. But the most interesting thing is not that. When clicked, bubbles are formed that emit a weak, invisible light to the human eye. It is now believed that this phenomenon ("sonoluminescence") occurs due to the effect of ultrasound on such a bubble. It is compressed with incredible force, a microscopic thermonuclear reaction occurs (hence the release of light), and a drop of air enclosed inside is heated to the temperature of the outer shell of the Sun. If this hypothesis is confirmed, then click shrimp can be called "floating reactors."

hairy snakes

Giant sea snakes appeared in historical chronicles much earlier than the Kraken (approximately in the 13th century), however, unlike it, they are still considered fictional. Swedish priest and writer Olaf the Great (1490-1557) in his work "History northern peoples" gave the following description of the sea serpent:

In modern times, the most famous encounter with a sea serpent took place almost 150 years ago. On an August day in 1848, the crew of the British ship Daedalus, en route to St. Helena, observed a twenty-meter aquatic reptile with a chic mane of hair around its neck. It was unlikely that this was a mass hallucination, so the London Times immediately broke into a sensational article about the "find of the century." Since then, sea snakes have been seen more than once, but not a single reliable evidence of their existence has been received.

Among all the candidates for the "position" of the sea serpent, the belt-fish (Regalecus glesne) is the most suitable. This rather rare creature that lives in tropical seas is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest (up to 11 meters) bone fish in the world.

Belt fish.

In appearance, the belt-fish really looks like a snake. Its weight can reach 300 kilograms. The meat is jelly-like, inedible. front beams dorsal fin elongated and form a “sultan” above the head, which from afar can be mistaken for a bun of hair. The belt fish lives at great depths (from 50 to 700 meters), but sometimes floats to the surface. Its unique feature is that it floats in an upright position, head up. Take a look at the photo. What can you think when you see this strange creature in the water?

Read, watch, play

Books featuring water monsters: Herman Melville "Moby Dick"; Jules Verne "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea"; H. F. Lovecraft, works from the Cthulhu myth cycle; John R. R. Tolkien "The Fellowship of the Ring" (the monster at the gates of Moria); Ian Fleming "Dr. No"; Michael Crichton "Sphere"; JK Rowling, Harry Potter series (monster in Hogwarts lake); Sergey Lukyanenko "Draft" (a creature in the sea of ​​Kimgim). Films featuring water monsters: "Tentacles 1-2" (Octopus 1-2, 2000-2001); "Sphere" (Sphere, 1998); Deep Rising (1998); "The Beast" (The Beast, 1996). Water monster games: MMORPG City of Heroes(in the harbor of the Port of Independence, the monster Luska appears from time to time); Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 ( remotely controlled giant squids); Soul Calibur 3(Nightmare character can fight with a "giant" squid).

* * *

If the ancients did not lie about the Kraken, then maybe we should take a closer look at other legends? After all, there are "giant versions" of the aquatic creatures we are used to! The American lobster grows up to 1 meter in length and 20 kilograms in weight. The span of the limbs of the Japanese spider crab reaches 4 meters. And the jellyfish Cyanea capillata is generally the longest living creature on the planet - its bell can be 2.5 meters in diameter, and thin tentacles extend to 30 meters.

In 1997, US Navy hydrophone stations tracking submarines off the coast South America, recorded a very strange sound in the ocean, undoubtedly made by a living creature. The source was never identified, however, judging by its acoustic power, none of the marine animals known today could “gurgle” so loudly.

The modern ocean is home to many incredible creatures, many of which we have no idea. You never know what lies there - in the dark cold depths. However, none of them can be compared with the ancient monsters that dominated the world's oceans millions of years ago.

In this article, we will tell you about pangolins, carnivorous fish and predatory whales that terrorized marine life in prehistoric times.

1. Giant stingray

What is it: 5 meters in diameter, a 25-meter-long poisonous spike on the tail and strength enough to pull a boat full of people? AT this case it is an eerie-looking flat sea creature that has lived from prehistoric times to this day in salt waters from the Mekong River all the way to Australia.

Stingrays have lived quietly in the waters of Australia since the extinction of dinosaurs and the huge predatory sharks from which they originated. They originated in prehistoric times, but they managed to survive all the ice ages, and even the terrible eruption of the Toba volcano. They are very dangerous and should not be approached. Even if you think that they are not around, you may be wrong - they are excellent at camouflage.

They are dangerous because they can attack you with a poisonous neurotoxin spike or simply damage their vital organs. The upside is that these prehistoric monsters aren't as aggressive and won't try to eat you.

2. Leviathan Melville (Livyatan melvillei)

Earlier in this article we already talked about predatory whales. Melville's Leviathan is the most intimidating of them all. Imagine a huge orca-sperm whale hybrid. This monster was not just carnivorous - it killed and ate other whales. It had the largest teeth of any animal known to us.

Their length sometimes reached 37 centimeters! They lived in the same oceans at the same time and ate the same food as megalodons, thus competing with the largest predatory shark of the time.

Their huge head was equipped with the same sonar devices as modern whales, making them more successful in murky waters. If it was not clear to someone from the very beginning, this animal was named after Leviathan - a giant sea monster from the Bible and Herman Melville, who wrote the famous "Moby Dick". If Moby Dick were one of the Leviathans, he would certainly eat the Pequod with his entire team.

3. Helicoprion (Helicoprion)

This shark, 4.5 meters long, had a serrated lower jaw lined with teeth. She looked like a hybrid shark with a buzz saw, and everyone knows that when dangerous power tools become part of a predator that is at the top of the food chain, the whole world trembles.

The teeth of the helicoprion were serrated, which clearly indicates the carnivorous nature of this sea monster, but scientists still do not know for sure whether the jaw was pushed forward as in the photo, or slightly pushed deep into the mouth.

These creatures survived the Triassic mass extinction, which could indicate their high intelligence, but their habitation could also be the reason.

4. Kronosaurus (Kronosaurus)

Kronosaurus is another short-necked lizard that looks like a Liopleurosaurus. Remarkably, its true length is also known only approximately. It is believed that it reached up to 10 meters, and its teeth reached up to 30 cm in length. That is why it was named after Kronos, the king of the ancient Greek titans.

Now guess where this monster lived. If your assumption was related to Australia, then you are absolutely right. The head of the Kronosaurus was about 3 meters long and it was able to swallow an entire adult human. In addition, after that, there was room inside the animal for another half.

Also, due to the fact that the flippers of kronosaurs were similar in structure to the flippers of a turtle, scientists concluded that they were very distantly related and assumed that kronosaurs also got out on land to lay their eggs. In any case, we can be sure that no one dared to ruin the nests of these sea monsters.

5. Dunkleosteus

Dunkleosteus was a ten-meter predatory monster. Huge sharks lived much longer than dunkleostei, but this did not mean that they were the best predators. Instead of teeth, Dunkleosteus had bony growths, like some species of modern turtles. Scientists have calculated that their bite force was 1500 kilograms per square centimeter, which put them on par with crocodiles and tyrannosaurs and made them one of the creatures with the strongest bite.

Based on the facts about their jaw muscles, scientists concluded that the Dunkleosteus could open its mouth in one fiftieth of a second, absorbing everything in its path. As the fish matured, the single bony tooth plate was replaced by a segmented one, which made it easier to get food and bite through the thick shells of other fish. In the arms race called the prehistoric ocean, the Dunkleosteus was a real well-armoured, heavy tank.

6. Mauisaurus (Mauisaurus haasti)

Mauisaurus was named after the ancient Maori god Maui, who, according to legend, pulled the skeleton of New Zealand from the bottom of the ocean with a hook, so that only by the name you can understand that this animal was huge. The neck of the Mauisaurus was about 15 meters long, which is quite a lot compared to its total length of 20 meters.

His incredible neck had many vertebrae, which gave it a special flexibility. Imagine a turtle without a shell with a surprisingly long neck - this is what this terrible creature looked like.

He lived during the Cretaceous period, which meant that the unfortunate creatures jumping into the water to escape the velociraptors and tyrannosaurs were forced to come face to face with these sea monsters. The habitats of the Mauisaurs were limited to the waters of New Zealand, which indicated that all the inhabitants were in danger.

7. Shellfish (Jaekelopterus rhenaniae)

Not surprisingly, the words "sea scorpion" evoke only negative emotions, but this representative of the list was the most creepy of them. Jaekelopterus rhenaniae is a special species of crustacean that was the largest and most intimidating arthropod of the time: 2.5 meters of pure clawed terror under the shell.

Many of us are terrified of small ants or large spiders, but imagine the full range of fear experienced by a person who would not be lucky enough to meet this sea monster.

On the other hand, these creepy creatures became extinct even before the event that killed all dinosaurs and 90% of life on Earth. Only some types of crabs survived, which are not so scary. There is no evidence that the ancient sea scorpions were venomous, but based on the structure of their tail, it can be concluded that this may indeed have been the case.

8. Basilosaurus (Basilosaurus)

Despite the name and appearance, they are not reptiles, as it might seem at first glance. In fact, these are real whales (and not the most intimidating in this squeak!). Basilosaurus were the predatory ancestors of modern whales and ranged from 15 to 25 meters in length. It is described as a whale, somewhat resembling a snake due to its length and ability to squirm.

It is hard to imagine that, while swimming in the ocean, one could stumble upon a huge creature that looked like a snake, a whale and a crocodile at the same time 20 meters long. The fear of the ocean would stick with you for a long time.

Physical evidence suggests that basilosaurs did not have the same cognitive abilities as modern whales. In addition, they did not have the ability to echolocate and could only move in two dimensions (which means that they could not actively dive and dive to great depths). Thus, this terrible predator was as stupid as a bag of prehistoric tools and would not be able to follow you if you dived or made landfall.

9. Liopleurodon (Liopleurodon)

If there was a water scene in the Jurassic Park movie that included several sea monsters of the time, the Liopleurodon would definitely appear in it. Despite the fact that scientists argue about the real length of this animal (some claim that it reached 15 meters), most of them agree that it was about 6 meters, with the pointed head of Liopleurodon occupying a fifth of the length.

Many people think that 6 meters is not so much, but the smallest representative of these monsters is able to swallow an adult. Scientists have recreated a model of Liopleurodon's fins and tested them.

In the course of their research, they found that these prehistoric animals were not so fast, but they were agile. They were also capable of making short, quick and sharp attacks similar to those of modern crocodiles, which makes them even more intimidating.

10. Megalodon (Megalodon)

The Megalodon may be the most famous creature on this list, but it's hard to imagine that a school bus-sized shark actually existed. Nowadays, there are many different scientific films and programs about these amazing monsters.

Contrary to popular belief, megalodons did not live at the same time as dinosaurs. They dominated the seas from 25 to 1.5 million years ago, which means that they missed the last dinosaur by 40 million years. In addition, this means that the first people found these sea monsters alive.

The home of the megalodon was the warm ocean that existed until the last ice age in the early Pleistocene, and it is believed that it was he who deprived these huge sharks of food and the opportunity to breed. Perhaps in this way nature has protected modern humanity from terrible predators.

11. Dacosaurus (Dakosaurus)

Traces of the existence of dacosaurs were first found in Germany. These predatory creatures, resembling a hybrid of reptiles and fish, dominated the ocean during the Jurassic period. Their remains were found on a vast territory from Russia to England and Argentina.

Although this sea monster is compared to modern crocodiles, its length averaged about 5 meters. Its huge and unique teeth have led scientists to conclude that dacosaurs were at the top of the food chain in their time.

12. Nothosaurus

Despite the fact that the body length of nothosaurs was only 4 meters, they were aggressive hunters. Their mouths were full of sharp teeth and they ate mostly fish and squid. It was believed that nothosaurs were the real experts in ambush and their bodies were ideal for sneaking up on the victim and taking her by surprise. It is generally accepted that notosaurs are inextricably linked with pliosaurs, another genus of marine predators. The remains found indicate that they lived in the Triassic period more than 200 million years ago.

Material translated from site: toptenz.net