My Top 10 Predators of Pre-History

As someone who loved dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures from a very young age, I wanted to be a palaeontologist however over time my views changed and decided to plan my career to become a journalist hence why I have started blogging. Prehistoric predators were so fascinating for me, I watched as many programs as I could about them and I think it’s time I did a countdown of my top 10 predators of pre history. I will be not only be focusing from one era, to make it fair I will choose my predators from as far back as 450million years ago.

10 – Sarchosuchus

This enormous crocodile was one of the top predators 112million years ago during the Cretaceous Period and is also one of the largest crocs to have walked the earth; it has been labelled a ‘dinosaur killer’ because this was its main prey. It was almost twice as long as the common Saltwater Crocodile and weighed roughly 10 tonnes – imagine seeing that coming out of a river. The skull of this creature was as big as a human and its mouth contained 132 teeth which were adapted for holding on to its prey rather than for slashing and tearing its prey apart. This creature would ambush its prey, holding its breath underwater waiting for a passing creature to get near the water’s edge, and then it would strike, grabbing its prey and holding it down under water until it drowned. A pretty devastating tactic to catch prey yet it finds itself at number 10 on the list because there are so many more vicious predators that have ever walked the earth.

9 – Utahraptor

Utahraptor – which lived during the early Cretaceous Period - is the largest Dromaeosauridae to have ever walked the earth. It was much bigger than the Velociraptor (it was only the size of a turkey, not the 6ft monster it was portrayed to be in Jurassic Park) and Utahraptor was a bit bigger than Deinonychus. It weighed as little as 500kg and was 7 metres long. As it was light it could run up to speeds of 20mph – somewhat slower than other Dromaeosaurs because of its bulk. To help it stay mobile while running its tail acted as ballast, keeping the dinosaur well balanced which enabled Utahraptor to run at its top speed and also making it very agile. Despite this it was a terrifying predator, the iconic claw on its second toe was used for killing its prey, and often the claw would be aimed at the throat hoping it could use its claw to slash the windpipe leading to suffocating its prey. Utahraptor was wrongly represented in BBC’s Walking with Dinosaurs, it was claimed to have lived in Europe but as its name suggest it only lived in Western America. However it isn’t the best predator that has ever lived as there were so many more devastating creatures that terrorised the lands throughout the prehistoric eras.

8 – Giant Orthocone

This was the top predator during the late Ordovician 460million years ago, it was 11 metres in length and terrorised these early seas. This creature was essentially a giant squid, at the front were the head and tentacles, and at the back was its cone shaped tail. I can imagine now by looking at the image you are thinking how on earth it managed to swim as it has no fins. Well this predator had a tube underneath its body which it used to force water out in the opposite direction to where it wanted to go, as a primitive creature this swimming method was very slow. Orthocone often delved in the dark depths to hunt its prey such as fish and arthropods (e.g. sea scorpions) as it had bad eyesight, this meant it could sneak up on its prey and catching it on the ambush. To kill its prey the Orthocone would grab its prey with the tentacles, and then it would pull the prey to the mouth where its beak would crush its catch. To prevent being killed by this predator, the prey would tend to stay at the shell end as it was slow turning. This predator became extinct 208million years ago but couldn’t terrorise the seas as long as it wanted as newer, bigger and more deadly sea predators evolved.

7 – Allosaurus

This dinosaur was the top predator of the North American Jurassic lands 150-155million years ago. This bipedal (two legged) predator could reach 12 metres in length and weighed up to a maximum of 4.5 tonnes. Often called the lion of the Jurassic jungles because of how it dominated the land. The skull contained dozens of razor like teeth used for tearing flesh unlike the teeth found on T-Rex which were used for crushing bone. Allosaurus’ main prey included many of the Jurassic herbivores such as Ornithopods, Stegosaurids and Sauropods. Now this prey came in all sizes therefore a hunting Allosaur stood no chance against a 10 tonne Stegosaur or Sauropod. Palaeontologists discovered that Allosaurs hunted in packs, by doing this their prey could be hunted quicker and easier. This method of hunting in groups was now becoming a common thing throughout the Jurassic period and was definitely an effective way of hunting. The most famous of all fossil Allosaurs was “Big Al.” BBC created a Walking with Dinosaurs special about “Big Al” where it focused upon how this dinosaur grew up in the Jurassic era up until his death after getting a severe infection in his toe. The fossil is often used by palaeontologists to learn more about how Allosaurs lived. Eventually Allosaurs soon died out as the world was changing and bigger and more deadly predators roamed the earth.

6 – Smilodon

A sabre tooth cat (not a tiger as it’s wrongly named) that lived during the end of the late Pleistocene about 2.5million years ago. This deadly predator was a similar size to that of the modern day Siberian Tiger and weighed up to 280kg. This predatory cat was probably the top predator of its time and had many characteristics to help it thrive throughout the changing world. As a lightweight predator it was able to run fast to chase its prey, another characteristic was its iconic sabre like teeth. The sabres on Smilodon were on average 30cm, where 17cm of the canine was protruded from the upper jaw. What Smilodon would do with these canines is sink them into the throat of its prey, crushing the windpipe which would kill the prey in an instant. As a killing machine Smilodon is definitely up there with the best predators of all time, however its own strength was its weakness. The sabre teeth were not the strongest and were only used for slicing, therefore during eating Smilodon had to be careful not to shatter these deadly weapons on bone, many fossils have missing ends to teeth due to either from fights or losing them from biting on bone. As the world was changing, Smilodon’s life became a big problem, lack of vegetation meant that herbivores were soon disappearing  and this then led to a lack of food for Smilodon, from this lack of food Smilodon became starved before eventually dying out 10,000 years ago.

5 – Dunkleosteus

Dunkleosteus is one of the strangest predators to have terrorised the seas, it lived during the Devonian (it is named the Devonian because of research was taken place at Devon) about 380 million years ago. The Devonian period was a strange period in time as it was the time of armoured fish, all creatures in the sea started to evolve armour plating to protect themselves from predators, but as always “life finds a way” (quote from Jurassic Park), top predators evolved to cope with dealing with the tough armoured shells fish had now grown. One predator that had fully adapted to this was Dunkleosteus, a 10 metre long monster that weighed around 3.5 tonnes. This predator was fully covered in hard armour plating and to eat its prey it didn’t have teeth, instead it had bone extensions which formed a crushing mouth enabling it to pierce through body plating. These armour plated fish were called Placoderms, a family of fish which first evolved during the Silurian period; Dunkleosteus itself was a Placoderm and was often attacked by other Dunkleosteuses. This was because at times Dunkleosteus turned into a cannibal whenever food became scarce. Dunkleosteus only fed on the meat of Placoderms; any armour was spat out and left for scavengers to pick on. Dunkleosteus’ bite is on a par with that of Tyrannosaurus Rex and modern crocodiles which shows how powerful this sea predator was. Also Dunkleosteus had the second most powerful bite of any sea creature, with Megalodon’s bite being the most powerful. Dunkleosteus died off as the Devonian changed into the Carboniferous leaving no descendants. This predator finds itself half way down the list but yet there are still many more top predators more deadly than Dunkleosteus.

4 – Tyrannosaurus Rex

Just saying or even looking at its name you know that it is a terrifying dinosaur. This name means “tyrant lizard” and it certainly lived up to its name. Often the most feared dinosaur of all time and is commonly seen in dinosaur related programs and films such as Walking with Dinosaurs and Jurassic Park.  This predator was one of the largest to walk the land and was certainly one to be avoided. This top predator lived during the late Cretaceous 67-65million years ago. Standing at 4 metres tall, 13m in length and weighing up to 7 tonnes this was definitely a predator that would cause trouble. Its skull was filled with 12 inch long bone crushing teeth which could severely injure its prey. T-Rex was somewhat smaller than other predators of the Cretaceous period such as Spinosaurus and Giganotosaurus but despite this T-Rex terrorised the land. It hunted literally on anything and because of its size it could and with those teeth it could crush bone and cause severe injuries. It has now come about that T-Rex may have hunted in groups, which was common in most predatory dinosaurs. When we think of T-Rex we think of it as a supreme predator that used its superb sense of smell – it could pick up the scent of its prey from miles away – to hunt but some scientists have discovered that T-Rex isn’t the predator it’s supposed to be. Latest discoveries have un-earthed that T-Rex scavenged on carcasses rather than hunting down its prey, this somewhat lowers the reputation of this fantastic predator. It did hunt but rumours have it that it spent more time scavenging than hunting, that’s why I have put T-Rex at 4th and not 1st, which is where most of you would put it.   

3 – Megalodon

The biggest shark that has ever lived, 28 million years ago during the late Oligocene and early Pleistocene period was when this sea monster first evolved and for 27milllion years had dominated the Cenozoic seas. This was no ordinary shark, it was a Great White shark on steroids coming in at a length of 16 metres and weighing at a maximum 100 tonnes, its jaws could spread so wide that a human could fit inside when it was standing upright, it’s serrated dagger like teeth were tremendously huge and could tear of flesh with one devastating bite. Let’s start by talking about its bite, the bite of Megalodon was the most powerful a sea creature has ever had, it could bite down with a force between 10 and 18 tonnes. One bite from Megalodon and the prey was dead, not only would the loss of blood kill it but also the shock from being attacked killed Megalodon’s prey. Megalodon often hunted on prehistoric whales and even juvenile Megalodons but due to the size of this monster it could attack anything. To hunt Megalodon would swim behind its prey before diving down into the deep to hide, after this Megalodon would swim up to its prey at top speed, roll back its eyes and then plunging those devastating teeth into its prey causing severe injuries and blood loss. The hunting method used by Megalodon is seen in modern day Great Whites, where by rolling back the eyes and protruding its array of teeth as it attacks prevent serious injuries. A very effective hunting method as it causes shock to the prey which is more of a killer than the loss of blood. Unfortunately Megalodon died out 2.8million years ago due to the lack of food, as is the way for most predators and it’s most likely relative is the Great White shark which is probably the deadliest sea predator of modern times.

2 – Giganotosaurus

A rather new discovery but definitely deserves its place as the 2nd best predator of all time. Giganotosaurus made T-Rex look a lightweight in terms of size and how it hunted through the Cretaceous lands 97million years ago. At a length of 13 metres and 13 tonnes in weight it was slightly bigger than its rival T-Rex but smaller than its fish eating predator Spinosaurus. I first saw Giganotosaurus in the PS1 game Dino Crisis 2 and was astounded by how big Giganotosaurus was in comparison to T-Rex. This predator was not a scavenger; it was an apex predator that hunted on anything. Like most predators it hunted in gangs of 5 or 6 to make hunting an easier job. Giganotosaurus hunted on the largest Sauropod to have lived during the Cretaceous period, Argentinosaurus. Hunting an adult Argentinosaurus by itself was a dangerous task but by hunting in packs it made the job slightly easier, one whip of the tail or stamp from Argentinosaurus meant severe injuries or instant death for Giganotosaurus. It was a brave task to hunt Argentinosaurus but often was a success which meant Giganotosaurus could fest for weeks on one corpse. Argentinosaurus wasn’t its everyday prey, it hunted on anything that it could tackle but killing an Argentinosaurus was a trophy. The razor sharp teeth inside its jaw could tear huge amounts of flesh and could crush bone; it also had a powerful bite which could make its prey bleed to death, another tactic used by Giganotosaurus. It would bite its prey causing severe injuries, and then it would follow the injured prey until it dropped from blood loss, then it could rip flesh from its tortured prey. A very harsh way to die but it was an effective way of hunting for Giganotosaurus to use. I was thinking this decision over in my head about putting Giganotosaurus second but I feel I made the right decision as the top predator was unbelievably deadly and the fact that the world had never ever seen a creature as big and as gigantic as this top predator which will be explained next.

1 – Liopleurodon

 

This has to be the most deadly predator ever to have terrorised the earth, it was a marine reptile so huge that it would scare even the biggest of land predators. Liopleurodon rules the oceans of the late Jurassic period 165-150million years ago, its weight and length are unknown as Walking with Dinosaurs depicted Liopleurodon as 75 feet long and weighing 150 tonnes, however some researchers say this is wrong and that in fact Liopleurodon was only 40 feet long and weighed 25 tonnes. Despite this confusion I believe that it was still the deadliest predator that ruled the world’s oceans. I also believe that both stats are right and that it is possible that Liopleurodon reached that massive size due to the amount of oxygen available during the Jurassic. For a big apex predator it wasn’t slow moving so therefore catching prey wasn’t a problem, it often hunted on squids, fish and Ichthyosaurs such as Opthalmosaurus. Its huge bulk of a head contained plenty of dagger like teeth that could slice through anything, it hunted just like a Great White shark, staying in the depths and then springing up and attacking its prey causing very severe injuries. Competition for food in the Jurassic seas was rare when Liopleurodon was around, other predators such as sharks were scared of Liopleurodon and I can see why. As a top predator should, its species lasted for a long period of time but died due to the changing seas and changing of geological period from Jurassic to Cretaceous. However Liopleurodon left a dynasty as one of the deadliest predators to have ruled the oceans and certainly deserves its place at number 1 on this list.