Back From the Past
Prehistoric animals that would be really cool to see today.
Saber tooth tiger
The saber tooth tiger weighed around 200 kilograms and had very powerful legs of course two huge canine teeth. Their two canine teeth were an astounding 7 inches long that were used for stabbing and slashing their prey. Saber tooth tigers were capable of opening their jaws 120 degrees. These vicious cats hunted just about any mammal you could think of deer, elk, bison, camels, and horses just to name a few. They hunted in packs and wrestled their prey to the ground and killed them by a bite to the throat. The saber tooth tiger went extinct around 10,000 B.C. and is unclear why; some scientist blame the prehistoric humans and other blame the ice age.
Woolly mammoth
The Wholly Mammoth lived mostly in the freezing artic so in order to protect themselves from freezing they had an extremely think layer of shaggy hair that could have grown up to 35 inches long. They also had a think layer of fat under there hair up to three inches think that also kept them warm. Wholly mammoths also had large tusks that were to shovel snow so they could reach the vegetation below since their diet consisted mainly of tundra grasses. Most of the wholly mammoths went extinct around 10,000 BC but a few remained until 3,750 B.C. There extinction is blamed on climate change and changes in hunting patterns. Scientists have recovered numerous frozen wholly mammoths that have not completely decayed. Since there is recoverable DNA from the frozen carcass there has been debate about whether they should use the DNA from the wholly mammoth and breed it with a modern elephant.
Tyrannosaurus Rex
The T-Rex was one of the largest animals ever; humans have recovered a complete specimen that measured 42 feet long and 13 feet tall. There skulls alone could reach a size of 5 feet long. Their jaws were D shaped and they had teeth that measured a deadly 12 inches long. Scientists predict that the T-Rex could have traveled at around 25MPH. It is unclear whether or not the T-Rex was a scavenger or a hunter. It is the most popular dinosaur with multiple movies featuring it including Jurassic park.
Rapetosaurus
Rapetosaurus was a dinosaur that lived during the Cretaceous period. It was a herbivore and reached lengths of 49 feet. They had extremely large necks and long slender tail and weighed about the same as an elephant today. They lived in southern continents such as South America and Africa and spent most of their time grazing on the leaves and trees that were out of range from most animals. Some information is still unclear since the bones they have collected are only a partial skeleton and more will be known when they uncover more bones.
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8 Responses to “Back From the Past”
On December 9, 2008 at 9:02 am
Great read!
On December 9, 2008 at 11:42 am
Great pics and interesting information, I knew only a little about from High School. Much detail.
On December 9, 2008 at 12:04 pm
13 feet doesn’t very tall but regardless, I would not think it pleasant to encounter Mr. T-Rex in a dark alley.
On December 9, 2008 at 6:59 pm
Thanks for sharing this information, I didn’t know about the Rapetosaurus.
On December 9, 2008 at 10:50 pm
Aren’t these prehistoric animals unbelievable. Great article.
On December 11, 2008 at 10:12 am
Great read! Prehistoric animals are really fascinating creatures.
On December 17, 2008 at 11:45 am
Those would be really cool to see, especially the dinosaurs. I’ve always been fascinated with them.
On December 18, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Facinating to see from a distance, a very, very, long distance. Good piece.
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