The largest carnivorous dinosaurs. The scariest dinosaurs in the world

Dinosaurs were the dominant vertebrates that inhabited all the ecosystems of planet Earth for over 160 million years - from the Triassic period (about 230 million years ago) to the end of the Cretaceous period (about 65 million years ago). I want to acquaint you with a list of the ten most ferocious marine dinosaurs.

10 Shastasaurus

Shastasaurus (Shastasaurus) - a genus of dinosaurs that lived at the end of the Triassic period (more than 200 million years ago) in the territory of modern North America and possibly China. His remains have been found in California, British Columbia and the Chinese province of Guizhou. This predator is the largest marine reptile ever found on the planet. It could grow up to 21 meters in length and weigh 20 tons.

9 Dacosaurus

In ninth place in the ranking is Dakosaurus, a marine crocodile that lived in the late Jurassic - early Cretaceous(more than 100.5 million years ago). It was a fairly large, carnivorous animal adapted almost exclusively to hunting big booty. Can grow up to 6 meters in length.

8. Thalassomedon

Thalassomedon is a genus of dinosaurs that lived in North America about 95 million years ago. Most likely, it was the main predator of its time. Thalassomedon grew up to 12.3 m in length. The size of its flippers reached about 1.5–2 meters. The length of the skull was 47 centimeters, teeth - 5 cm. He ate fish.

7. Nothosaurus

Nothosaurus (Nothosaurus) - a marine lizard that lived 240-210 million years ago in the territory modern Russia, Israel, China and North Africa. In length reached about 4 meters. It had webbed limbs, with five long fingers that could be used both for movement on land and for swimming. Probably ate fish. A complete Notosaurus skeleton can be seen at the Museum natural history in Berlin.

6. Tylosaurus

In sixth place in the list of the most ferocious marine dinosaurs is Tylosaurus (Tylosaurus) - a large marine predatory lizard that inhabited the oceans at the end of the Cretaceous period (about 88-78 million years ago). It was the dominant marine predator of its time. It grew up to 14 m in length. It fed on fish, large predatory sharks, small mosasaurs, plesiosaurs, and waterfowl.

5. Talattoarchon

Talattoarchon (Thalattoarchon) - a large marine reptile that lived more than 245 million years ago in what is now the western part of the United States. The remains, consisting of part of the skull, spine, pelvic bones, and part of the hind fins, were discovered in Nevada in 2010. According to estimates, talattoarchon was the top predator of his time. It grew to at least 8.6 m in length.

4. Tanystropheus

Tanystropheus is a genus of lizard-like reptiles that lived in the Middle Triassic about 230 million years ago. It grew up to 6 meters in length, and was distinguished by a very elongated and mobile neck, which reached 3.5 m. It led a predatory aquatic or semi-aquatic lifestyle, probably hunting fish and cephalopods near the coast.

3. Liopleurodon

Liopleurodon (Liopleurodon) - a genus of large carnivores marine reptiles who lived at the turn of the middle and late Jurassic periods (from about 165 million to 155 million years ago). It is assumed that the largest known Liopleurodon was just over 10 m in length, but typical sizes for it range from 5 to 7 m (according to other sources, 16-20 meters). Body weight is estimated at 1-1.7 tons. These apex predators probably ambushed large cephalopods, ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, sharks, and other large animals they could catch.

2 Mosasaurus

Mosasaurus (Mosasaurus) is a genus of extinct reptiles that lived on the territory of modern Western Europe and North America during the Late Cretaceous - 70-65 million years ago. For the first time their remains were found in 1764 near the river Meuse. The total length of representatives of this genus ranged from 10 to 17.5 m. appearance resembled a mixture of fish (or whale) with a crocodile. All the time they were in the water, plunging to a considerable depth. They ate fish, cephalopods, turtles and ammonites. According to some scientists, these predators are distant relatives modern monitor lizards and iguanas.

1. Megalodon

Megalodon (Carcharocles megalodon) is an extinct species of prehistoric shark that lived throughout the oceans 28.1–3 million years ago. It is the largest known predatory fish in history. It is estimated that the megalodon reached 18 meters in length and weighed 60 tons. The shape of the body and behavior was similar to the modern white shark. He hunted cetaceans and other large marine animals. Interestingly, some cryptozoologists claim that this animal could have survived to the present, but apart from the huge teeth found (up to 15 cm in length), there is no other evidence that the shark still lives somewhere in the ocean.

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To great happiness for mankind, the era when the most carnivorous dinosaurs in the world still lived on our planet, long gone. I don’t even want to imagine what would happen if these “cute” creatures were still in the neighborhood. An adrenaline rush is guaranteed. The largest predatory dinosaur - what is it?

Deinocheirus - a terrible hand

Presumably, the size of this "baby" was about 20 meters. To date, only two forelimbs of this dinosaur have been found in Mongolia. It remains only to find the complete skeleton of the monster to confirm this championship title. Judging by the size of the front paws (2.4 meters), this is really the most large dinosaur predator that lived on our land.

By 70 million years ago, Deinocheirus was vastly larger than all existing theropods (meat-eating dinosaurs). It looked like a huge ostrich with long forelimbs. Thanks to such “hands”, he perfectly climbed trees and, with the help of sharp powerful claws, instantly tore his victim apart.

Egyptian spinosaurus - spiked lizard

A seven-ton handsome man ranging in size from 12 to 17 meters is considered one of the largest predatory dinosaurs of the prehistoric past. Its narrow, elongated skull is shaped like a crocodile's head. It is believed that he lived both on land and in water, but hunted only aquatic inhabitants. The latest discovery of Spinosaurus remains in Morocco proved that it moved on four legs, and not on two, as previously thought.

A hump on the back with a fatty layer made it possible to save energy reserves for periods of drought. Stenosaurus possessed sharp teeth and powerful front paws, which allowed him to easily catch both large fish and amphibians. On the back of this dinosaur was a membrane-fin, which could serve as a heat exchanger (1.8 meters).

"Royal lizard - tyrant" measured 14 - 15 in length and 5 - 5.6 meters in height. Weighed a tyrannosaurus huge elephant(6 - 7 tons). He possessed the most powerful jaws and sharp teeth among all land predators. Its powerful hind legs were well developed and helped to run fast enough, however, only for short distances. Long distances due to the huge weight were beyond the power of the tyrannosaurus. As a rule, he lay in wait for his prey in ambush and made an attack with a lightning dash. Only adult dinosaurs could escape from these powerful jaws, and young and old individuals became the prey of this predator.

The tyrannosaurus did not disdain carrion, the corpses of other dinosaurs also served as food for it. These giants hunted alone and strictly adhered to "their" territory. When the female laid her eggs, she spent the rest of the time near the nest, which could become a tasty prey for other dinosaurs. Due to the gases with which the atmosphere was filled in those days, 3-4 cubs from the entire litter were born. Was it possible to survive in such conditions, tyrannosaurs were doomed to extinction.

Giganotosaurus - giant southern lizard

Presumably, this predator lived on the territory of Argentina and had very impressive dimensions - 12 - 13 meters in length and about 4.5 meters in height. These inhabitants of Patagonia united in flocks to hunt large herbivorous dinosaurs, but alone they could only cope with old and sick individuals. Giganotosaurs did not disdain carrion either.

Throughout the history of the Late Cretaceous period, this species can also be attributed to the largest predatory dinosaurs in the world. Many remains of Tarbosaurus began to be found in the 40s of the last century, which makes it possible to compile a portrait of this handsome man. These predators lived in China and, possibly, Mongolia 70-80 million years ago.

Bipedal five-ton predators moved on their hind legs, and the forelimbs were disproportionately small with two fingers on each paw. Tarbosaurus hunted small herbivorous dinosaurs, but could also eat carrion. Due to instability, tarbosaurus did not run very fast, and therefore preferred to ambush prey.

Carcharodontosaurus - sharp-toothed lizard

This representative of predatory dinosaurs lived in Africa, its remains were found in Algeria and Morocco. The length of this monster was about 12 meters, with a weight of up to 6 tons. The first finds of the remains of Carcharodontosaurus were made back in 1925 by French paleontologists. The predator moved on two powerful hind legs, while the forelimbs were weak. He also had a long, elongated skull, resembling wide scissors. The body of the predator ended in a long tail.

Carcharadontosaurs hunted most often on flat terrain and could develop very good speed for such gigantic sizes. Sometimes they wandered into coastal areas and there they had conflicts over prey with another representative of the predatory dinosaurs - spinosaurus.

Bahariasaurus

Another representative of African predatory dinosaurs. He presumably lived on the territory of modern Egypt, Nigeria and Morocco. The predator is 11.9 meters long and weighs 4 tons. He had powerful hind limbs, but the front paleontologists have not been able to find so far, however, like the skull, so one can only guess about his image. It is believed that the Bahariyasaurus was quite mobile, and hunted near water bodies for smaller aquatic inhabitants, such as turtles.

Carnivorous dinosaurs appeared in Triassic period and became extinct in the Cretaceous. All of them were reptiles and laid eggs, although in appearance most of them differ from ordinary snakes and lizards. The largest of the predatory dinosaurs reached 30 m in length and weighed more than a ton, but not all of them were giants. The length of the smallest predatory dinosaurs was no more than 25 cm, but, nevertheless, they were extremely dangerous.

In 1841, the English zoologist Sir Richard Owen coined the word "dinosaur", which means "terrible lizard". Herbivorous and carnivorous dinosaurs are extinct reptiles of gigantic size. However, you should not consider all dinosaurs to be large animals - some of them were medium in size, and some were very small. Most of the dinosaurs weighed about 2 tons. Dinosaurs lived on Earth for about 160 million years in mesozoic era, during the Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous periods.

Interesting to know, Dinosaur fossils were first discovered in England and described in 1824. Then the scientists were able to find fossils of other fossil animals that were assigned to the same class. The number of such finds is in the hundreds.

Tyrant Lizard - Tyrannosaurus Rex

The largest carnivore that ever existed on Earth and lived on land is a tyrannosaurus rex, a predatory dinosaur 2.5 meters high, more than 10 meters long and weighing about 7 tons. When the tyrannosaurus stood up on its hind legs, it became a six-meter giant. Only one huge skull of a tyrannosaurus rex was 1.3-1.5 meters long, and it had 60 teeth in its mouth, some of them were up to 20 cm long. This predatory dinosaur moved on its hind legs, since the front ones were too short. Two claws on the forelimbs served as a support or were used by this predator to attack and grab the prey. Tyrannosaurus attacked large herbivorous dinosaurs - inactive and incapable of effective defense.

Interesting to know. Another predatory dinosaur, a contemporary of the Tyrannosaurus rex, the Gorgosaurus lived in what is now Canada. The length of this lizard was 7-9 m and weighed about a ton.

Terrifying - Tarbosaurus

Modern Mongolia and China were home to the carnivorous Tarbosaurus dinosaurs. Somewhat smaller than a Tyrannosaurus rex, Tarbosaurus was one of the most dangerous and largest predators on Earth in the prehistoric period. This pangolin had powerful three-toed hind limbs and a long, heavy tail that balanced its body. With a height of about 10-12 meters, this predator weighed 5-6 tons. Despite being smaller than Tyrannosaurus, Tarbosaurus had a larger skull and more teeth. This predatory dinosaur could reach speeds of no more than 30 km / h and, most likely, ate carrion. Studies of the fossilized brain of Tarbosaurus indicate that it had an excellent sense of smell and good hearing, but poor vision.

Interesting to know. Carnotaurus is a predatory dinosaur of the Cretaceous period. The remains of this large lizard were found in Argentina. Similar in physique to Tarbosaurus and Tyrannosaurus Rex, Carnotaurus was distinguished by horn-like growths above the eyes, thinner hind limbs and very tiny front paws. His height was 8-9 m, weight - about 2 tons.

Strange lizard - allosaurus

The predatory dinosaur Allosaurus, slightly smaller in size than the Tyrannosaurus Rex, reached a length of 9 meters, and half of its body was the tail. The powerful jaws that complemented the huge head of the Allosaurus allowed it to cope with the bones of flying orinitopod dinosaurs. This predatory dinosaur weighed about 2 tons, but at the same time it moved quickly, taking big steps while chasing the prey. Perhaps, the front short paws served him in order to hold the victim at the moment of capture. Allosaurs lived in Jurassic period in North America and hunted large herbivorous lizards - brontosaurs, stegosaurus, sauropods.

Terrible Claw - Deinonychus

Another predatory dinosaur 3-4 m tall and weighing 50-100 kg is Deinonychus. Fast and agile, Deinonychus was very aggressive. It was the discovery of the remains of this predatory dinosaur that prompted scientists to think about the warm-bloodedness of ancient dinosaurs. It is assumed that Deinonychus was able to climb trees, and the claws on the middle fingers of his hind legs helped him in this. The sharp sawtooth teeth of the predator allowed it to cope with the bones of large herbivorous dinosaurs.

Graceful jaws - compsognathus

One of the smallest predatory dinosaurs is a compsognathus with a small body of 40-100 cm and a narrow elongated head of about 7 cm. The weight of this prehistoric predator was approximately 3 kg due to the lightweight structure of bone tissues. He was lightning fast and flexible. Sharp, slightly curved teeth and dagger claws on the front paws helped him deftly attack the victim. The Compsognathians hunted in packs. The bones of this animal have been found in Bavaria and France in the deposits of the Jurassic period.

The last of the finds of paleontologists is the skeleton of a predatory dinosaur tyrannosaurus

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One of the very first finds that were discovered in England was a fragment of the lower jaw with a pair of huge teeth. It was not difficult to guess that the jaw belonged to one of largest carnivorous dinosaurs. The largest carnivorous dinosaur is called megalosaurus (huge lizard). Unfortunately, no other fragments of the skeleton could be found, which prevented exact definition the true size and shape of the reptile. After some time, various remains of the lizard skeleton were found, but they also failed to draw an accurate picture from them.

Scientists conducted comparative characteristic the largest predatory dinosaur Megalosaurus with others like it, and came to the consensus that the lizard walked on two hind legs, it was about 9 meters long and weighed approximately 1000 kg.

Among the huge variety of dinosaurs, scientists singled out another species, his name is Allosaurus. In the United States, more than 60 different skeletons of reptiles of various sizes were found during excavations, presumably the animals weighed from 1000 to 2000 kg, and were up to 12 meters long.

Tyrannosaurus and Tabrosaurus, who lived on Earth more than 80 million years ago, in the Cretaceous period, had even larger sizes. Their skeletons were found mostly without tails, but presumably it can be stated that their length was up to 15 meters, height up to 5 meters and body weight up to 6 tons.

The skull of Tarbosaurus was 145 cm long, Tyrannosaurus rex - 137 cm. The length of the teeth was more than 15 cm, which allowed the reptile to hold almost any animal actively resisting in its mouth. From such an impressive size and weight, one may wonder, but could the largest predatory dinosaurs really keep up with prey, or did they feed mainly on carrion? The front paws of such dinosaurs were very small and weak with two toes.

Tertsinosaurus had a huge finger, its length was 80 cm, but scientists are not sure that everything that was preserved during the life of the reptile was preserved on the skeleton, most likely there were more such fingers.

The spinosaurus, or prickly lizard, had a fin-membrane on its back, 1.8 meters high, which, perhaps, served as a heat exchanger or a tool to scare away rivals and enemies. Oh, these are all trifles, compared with the find in Mongolia. The largest predatory dinosaur was found here. The length of the front small paws was 2.5 meters. Each paw was equipped with three huge claws that could easily kill the victim. Polish researchers dubbed this monster "Deinocheirus", which means "terrible hand".

For comparison, you can take an ostrich dinosaur, which has almost the same structure of the front paws, but several times shorter in length, then we can assume that Deinocheirus was one and a half times larger than a tyrannosaurus rex! Was Deinocheirus the largest carnivorous dinosaur?

In the movies, they probably lie: what if in real life real dinosaurs were simple-minded, slow, vulnerable good-natured people? The MAXIM editor on paleontology answers with this list of the most dangerous giant lizards.

Oleg "Orange" Bocharov

The hero of many scary films, the sinister and carnivorous Pteranodon, in real life(just like pterodactyls and rhamphorines) ate mainly fish, paying little attention to people. True, it should be borne in mind that there were no people then. If he lived in our time, the danger would be considerable, since with a 15-meter wingspan and a heavy beak, he can kill purely by accident, with one sneeze, when trying to take a can of delicious sprats from a person.

It looks like a tyrannosaurus rex and often replaces it in many films when the tyrannosaurus is unavailable or gets sick (for example, in the movie "Rolled Out Thunder"). It is believed that it reached 8 and a half meters in length and 3 and a half meters in height. Scientists are arguing: was the Allosaurus a collective animal or lived separately, outside the pack. There are two arguments here: on the one hand, the bones of allosaurs are found immediately in bulk from many individuals. On the other hand, the creature was too aggressive to live together in a large society. However, in order to devour a person, one allosaurus is enough, even the most recent outcast loser.

Known to science for a long time, since the nineteenth century. It weighed a ton and a half with a nine-meter length. He ate smaller lizards. There was something akin to a horn on the head, so the Mayungasaurus worked not only with its teeth, but also with its head. It is believed that he did not see well, but he had a hefty scent. So in our time it could be used to find drugs and eat drug lords.

It is not clear why this creature was called a sarcosuchus. They would immediately call it "a huge crocodile", and it would immediately be clear who they are talking about. The great-great-great-grandfather of the crocodile Gena grew up to 12 meters and fattened up to 6 tons. It is twice as large as any modern crocodile; if a sarcosuchus crosses the road - this is a very, very bad omen.

A four-ton predator of 12 meters in length. Scientists on the sidelines say that a more massive species of carchadontosaurus could live in Nigeria - 14 meters in length and weighing 9 tons. He was a lone hunter, and he certainly did it well. Most likely, he simply died out of boredom when he realized that he had already achieved everything in this life.

A true show business superstar, the old T-Rex is actually no longer considered the largest fossil. land predator. Films are still being made about him, books are being written and stories are being told, since it was the Tyrannosaurus Rex in the old school programs that was portrayed as the main embodiment of evil. Yet paleontology does not stand still!

However, the T-rex, seeing you, would also not stand still - pumped up hind legs carried a two-ton mass at a frantic speed, and the jaws could bite through the body armor of most herbivorous pangolins. What to say about you? You can't even hear his approach through your headphones.

Seven-meter mobile flocking predator. The brain cavity in the cranium is closer in volume to birds than to other predatory lizards. Hence the logical conclusion of paleontologists that Utahraptor could be more cunning and quick-witted than a typical dinosaur. But still, Utahraptor was hardly such an insidious intellectual as Hollywood screenwriters imagine him to be in a narcotic frenzy - after all, the birds are also different, compare the behavior of city sparrows and these hillbilly chickens at your leisure.

In the movies, Utahraptors aren't as common as Velociraptors, which is odd, since Utahraptors are four times as big and about as many times more dangerous (according to police reports).

The largest complete skeleton of this inhabitant of Africa, after measurement, showed a length of 12 meters. However, there is strong evidence to suggest the existence of specimens of 18 meters in length, so Spinosaurus may well be in contention for the top spot on this list. Spinosaurus is a creature that is extremely unpleasant in appearance, according to the identikit. True, some paleontologists offer an alternative vision, even more unpleasant - with a hump and a trunk - since, according to their version, he ate mostly fish. Check it out at the first meeting.