Giant Prehistoric Predator Skull Found Intact, Unbelievable Creature Was The Ultimate Killing Machine
As far as prehistoric killers go, Godzilla’s got nothing on the pliosaur. An ancient skull belonging to the ocean-dwelling apex predator was discovered recently on southern England’s Jurassic Coast. The fossil measures almost seven feet long and is filled with razor-sharp fangs designed to kill with a single bite.
The Pliosaur Was A Terrifying Sea Creature That Lived 150 Million Years Ago
The pliosaur is an extinct murder lizard that prowled the sea looking for victims approximately 150 million years ago. Pliosaurs have been described as the “ultimate killing machines” and were thought to be able to speed through the ocean depths taking down prey with ruthless efficiency. These death torpedos could sometimes kill their unlucky prey with a single tooth-filled chomp.
Over 130 long, razor-sharp teeth adorn the pliosaur skull. Each tooth has a series of ridges on its back to help pierce an animal’s flesh, and in the rare occasion when a second bite is needed, quickly extract themselves in preparation for another attack. If the teeth aren’t scary enough on their own, the pliosaur had jaws with twice the snapping power as today’s saltwater crocodiles.
The T. Rex Of The Ocean
As a comparison, a human can bite down with the force of 700 newtons, a dog 1,000. The mighty pliosaur was able to bite down with a force of 33,000 newtons, or 7,418 lbs. That’s almost four tons of bone-crushing force every time the pliosaur sinks its teeth into something.”The animal would have been so massive that I think it would have been able to prey effectively on anything that was unfortunate enough to be in its space,” Andre Rowe, a paleobiologist from Bristol University told BBC News. The unlucky pre-historic swimmers that would have found themselves most likely to end up on the pliosaur’s dish included plesiosaurs, ichthyosaurs, and, according to fossil evidence, even other pliosaurs. Rowe compared the beast to an “underwater T. Rex.
Grew Up To 39 Feet Long
At a length of between 32 and 39 feet, the pliosaur makes the 25-foot shark from Jaws look like Nemo from Finding Nemo in comparison. Jaws’s ancient cousin, the megalodon, however, still has the pliosaur beat in terms of sheer length. The longest meg specimen ever found measured 58.7 feet long, but scientists think some of the uber-sharks could have reached as long as 82 feet. In terms of sheer killing power, however, the pliosaur was unmatched.
Skull Discovered Washed Up On A Beach
Fossil enthusiast Phil Jacobs discovered the skull while walking along the beach. Jacobs found the tip of the pliosaur’s snout sticking out of the shingle. Soon, the creature’s massive cranium was found embedded in a nearby cliff face by a drone. Paleontologists had to rappel down the cliff face to perform a complex and delicate operation to excavate the fossil.
BBC One Airing A Special About The Discovery
BBC One will air a special about the pliosaur skull on New Year’s Day hosted by David Attenborough.The scientific community is all abuzz over the new fossil as it represents a complete and intact pliosaur skull—a rare find in the field of paleontology. The skull is possibly the most complete specimen of its type ever discovered and should give paleontologists new insight into this pre-historic version of the Terminator.
