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10 Deadliest Prehistoric Killers You Won't Believe Existed

Journal Field & Fossil

12,631 views

Dinosaurs get all the hype.
But North America once crawled, swam, and stalked with predators that were even more terrifying.

From a whale-eating sperm whale with the biggest biting teeth ever found… to a 10‑meter caiman that ambushed giant ground sloths… these prehistoric monsters were real, scientifically documented, and in some cases closer to you on the tree of life than T. rex. We’re diving into the fossils, the bite-force estimates, the CT scans, and the evolutionary twists that make these creatures so mind-bending. Some weren’t dinosaurs at all. Some came before. And some ruled long after.

🔥 In this video you'll discover:
✅ Why Smilodon’s 7-inch fangs worked (and why they were fragile)
✅ The bizarre buzzsaw jaw of Helicoprion — solved by CT scans
✅ How a 2‑meter terror bird invaded North America
✅ The truth about Dimetrodon (and why it’s closer to you than T. rex)
✅ The whale-hunting Livyatan with record-breaking teeth
✅ Why Mosasaurus had a second set of jaws

⏱ TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 — SMILODON (Saber-toothed cat)
06:41 — HELICOPRION (Ancient shark with spiral tooth whorl)
12:19 — TITANIS WALLERI (Terror bird)
17:14 — DAEODON (Hell pig)
21:45 — PURUSSAURUS (Giant Miocene caiman)
26:25 — ARCTODUS SIMUS (Short-faced bear)
30:39 — DIMETRODON (Synapsid reptile)
35:23 — LIVYATAN MELVILLEI (Killer whale)
39:38 — QUETZALCOATLUS (Giant pterosaur)
44:24 — MOSASAURUS (Marine lizard)
49:50 — CONCLUSION AND EPILOGUE

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❤️ Smash that like button if this blew your mind.
💬 Drop your thoughts in the comments.

Sources / Scientific references

Smilodon — McHenry et al. 2007, PNAS, doi:10.1073/pnas.0706086104; Meachen-Samuels & Van Valkenburgh 2010, PLOS ONE, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0011412
Helicoprion — Tapanila et al. 2013, Biology Letters, doi:10.1098/rsbl.2013.0057
Titanis — Brodkorb 1963, The Auk 80(2); MacFadden et al. 2007, Geology, doi:10.1130/G23186A.1; Degrange et al. 2010, PLOS ONE, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0011856
Daeodon / entelodonts — Natural History Museum & encyclopedic sources; predation/caching evidence from Archaeotherium
Purussaurus — Aureliano et al. 2015, PLOS ONE, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0117944; Pujos & Salas-Gismondi 2020, Biology Letters, doi:10.1098/rsbl.2020.0239
Arctodus simus — Figueirido et al. 2010, J. Vertebrate Paleontology, doi:10.1080/02724630903416027
Dimetrodon — established paleontology (synapsid; Early Permian)
Livyatan melvillei — Lambert et al. 2010, Nature, doi:10.1038/nature09067
Quetzalcoatlus — Witton & Naish 2008, PLOS ONE, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0002271; Lawson 1975, Science
Mosasaurus — Cuvier 1808 & A. Camper 1799 (historical); Natural History Museum (London)

#Prehistoric #Dinosaurs #AncientAnimals #Paleontology #Mosasaurus #Smilodon #IceAge #Megafauna #Science #NaturalHistory

7 Comments

@Celticpride1 1 month ago

Such a cool video 🔥💯

@Eduardo-f1d7e 2 months ago

Smilodon did not use their arms for wrestling down and pinning it's prey. How do you wrestle down a mammoth? Smilodons had bob tails, meaning they did not chase prey. They ambushed it. The arms were designed not to wrestle but to hold on around large prey's necks. They would hold on and rip out its throat with their sabers. No need for strong bite, just a strong neck to pull the the saber through the flesh in the throat. In the process, they would frequently get trampled by large prey. Hence, the injuries frequently found on the Smilodon's bones.

@robluna7156 1 month ago (edited)

I still don’t think they got Helicopripn correct. I don’t know what the right way is, but that sill doesn’t make sense the way it’s supposed to be used. Evolutionarily there are other less complicated ways to do what that supposedly did.
Also, Smilodon looks to me like it could have used its enormous fangs without opening its mouth to that freakishly unnatural large gape. Especially if it couldn’t make sufficiently strong bite force. That doesn’t make sense. Maybe they didn’t open their mouth at all, and just used them to drive into the flesh with its mouth closed, like 2 hooks providing an extra place to hold on along with their claws. They had very large neck muscles that could have helped drive downward force for these kind of teeth.

@MrEnjoivolcom1 3 months ago

If this weren't all AI, and actual REAL video or photos from the animal world, it'd be an amazing channel.

@patrickforget5088 3 months ago (edited)

What you don't realize is those predators in that tar pit they become pray because they can't move they're stuck there are no better than a ground sloth or a bison or you know anything that happens to wander into that and get stuck yeah they're pretty their food I know if I was one of those cats and I seen one of my kind stuck in that thing and they can't move oh yeah try to make him a meal most definitely so yeah I believe that there's would be more predators because even the predators become prey don't you think it go for the spinal cord though like the tiger does because when those teeth be perfectly have the width to fit in between the vertebrae and the did you guys ever look at that because if a tiger will do it why wouldn't I mean they held the parade down to pray couldn't move so yeah if I was there I'd go for the spinal cord hell with the throat

@patrickforget5088 3 months ago

Go watch a bat it'll do the same thing that's how quickly cordless cut off the ground if you've ever seen a bat on the ground how they get off they spring quetzalcoatlus with coil its body down to the ground and then force himself up into the air pop up in the air like a spring

@patrickforget5088 3 months ago

If you would swim with a sperm whale you're crazy that is one well that you know has an attitude it has such an attitude that killer whales don't even like screwing with it yeah that is one group of whales that I never swim with