Friday, March 15, 2013

Extinct Species , How Far You Know Them ?

A species becomes extinct when the last existing member dies. Extinction therefore becomes a certainty when there are no surviving individuals that are able to reproduce and create a new generation . Species go away forever for a lot of different reasons: ice ages, catastrophic meteor collisions and maybe caused by human

We didn't do all these species in, but we've certainly had a hand in some of their demises.



  1. The Saber-toothed Tiger (Smilodon)


Though there were once many species of saber-toothed cats, the most famous is Smilodon.

He's the cat you see in picture books about prehistoric times, the one that got trapped (and preserved) in the La Brea tar pits while hunting mammoths. He's been gone from the Earth for over 10,000 years now, but those huge canine teeth, now believed to be used primarily for (eek) ripping open prey, still inspire awe.

The cat itself was about the size of a modern-day lion (if not a bit shorter), but far more robust. Since the fierce predator once roamed freely in the grasslands and forests of North and South America, we should probably just be happy we're not living in the Ice Age.

    2.   Dunkleosteus 



Dunkleosteus was a large Placoderm (a family of armour-plated fishes) that lived in the late Devonian period, about 380–360 million years ago. It grew to around 10 metres (33 feet), and was probably the top predator of its time.

all of them were extinct by the late Devonian. There are no modern descendants. Dunkleosteus had the most powerful bite of any fish, well ahead of sharks, including the Great White. Dunkleosteus could concentrate a force of up to 8,000 pounds (3,628 kg) per square inch at the tip of its mouth, effectively placing .

Dunkleosteus in the league of Tyrannosaurus rex and modern crocodiles as having the most powerful known bite. Dunkleosteus could also open its mouth in one-fiftieth of a second, which would have caused a powerful suction that pulled the prey into its mouth, a food-capture technique reinvented by many of the most advanced teleost fishes today. Due to its heavily armoured nature, Dunkleosteus was likely a relatively slow swimmer.

   3.    Sarcosuchus ( Super Croc )



Sarcosuchus,It is one of the largest crocodillians the world has ever seen. It most likely measured 12 metres
Added by Alioramus (40 ft) long, and the head alone was the size of a man . Sarcosuchus would have eaten anything from fish, other crocodilians, to even dinosaurs!

Sarcosuchus was a huge crocodile, growing as long as a bus, and weighed as much as an african bull elephant. It had 132 huge, conical teeth inside its 6-foot (1.8-meter) long head, and could easily crush bone with its powerful jaws. That alone made it a terrifying predator, along with the fact that it was also an expert ambush predator makes it even more frightening, making even some of the largest dinosaurs have to watch their backs .

   4.   Titanoboa



Titanoboa, meaning "Titanic Boa," was a very large genus of snake that lived approximately 60–58 million years ago,The only known species is Titanoboa cerrejonensis, the largest snake ever discovered , Titanoboa was an ancestor of Boas and Anacondas, and like them it was a constrictor, but could give ten times the pressure of that from a common anaconda .

Measuring a max-size of about 48 feet (14.7 meters) long and 1.5 tons in weight,this snake was an expert ambush predator, capable of striking at incredible speeds at unsuspecting prey . What a gigantic snake ! 

   5.   Helicoprion



Helicoprion ("Spiral Saw") was a long-lived genus of shark-like cartilaginous fish that first arose in the oceans of the lateCarboniferous 280 million years ago and eventually went extinct during the early Triassic some 230 million years ago.

Helicoprion may have grown up to 10-15 ft long . The number of it size was definitely defeated by titanoboa and super croc .The only fossils known are the teeth, which were arranged in a fantastic "tooth-whorl" strongly reminiscent of a circular saw. 

The exact location of the tooth-whorl in the lower jaw is unknown. Most current reconstructions place the whorl in the front of the lower jaw; however this would create drag, making the shark a less efficient swimmer, and turbulence, alerting prey of its approach


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