These Were Prehistoric Earth's Biggest Predators 

They filled the niche of super predator that was left empty by the mass extinction. That why they were grew super big fast and were so successful

People keep overusing the Mosasaurs when the giant Icthyosaurs are just as or even more terrifying than them.

😨 unironic fear 😰

Like?

Oh GOD, STAAAHP

Hi

The big ones acted like sperm whales do the smaller ones are the scary ones they were pure hunters are acted like orcas do

I had seen about the new surangular by PdLS. This is a new bone but still no teeth so far, because of this I'm still suspicious about toothed macropredation in ichthyosaurs above 20 m. Also, even with robust teeth, the snout reconstructions I see of S. popularis look really slender, I have a hard time seeing one ingesting a 20 t prey as suggested by Vividen. I'd also like to see more evidence of Himalayasaurus having such a robust skull, it seems to me the skull was hardly preserved. Isn't Thalattoarchon rather the most robustly skulled ichthyosaur ? I'm still very suspicious of this Temnodontosaurus bite force estimate from a non reviewed article, I have a hard time to believe it would bite harder than a large, more robust skulled Basilosaurus (20kN) or Kronosaurus with a 1.8 m skull (27 kN). Overall, for now I don’t see more firepower from those guys, even at 25 m×, than in what we see in the Livyatan skull and what we project from the Otodus megalodon dentitions.

or pliosaurs

I hear you man, but We are nature's final boss, dude. We would have eventually hunted this thing for sport.

@@ahmedshaharyarejaz9886 Nature's final boss remains probably the large Otodus megalodon, for now those giant shastasaurids appear more like 25 m reptilian small toothed or toothless dolphins. There is excessive hype regarding their alleged trophic level, shastasaurids are mostly cephalopods eaters based on stomach contents but everyone seems to want to make them real life counterparts to the BBC Liopleurodon.

Well, we can never find all the fossils, nor does every species fossilise, so the blue whale being the largest animal confirmed is closely linked to it being the one we live alongside today.

And luckily this monster isn't aggressive at all too !

It's entirely possible that these macropredatory ichthyosaurs outgrew it. We just haven't figured that out for certain yet.

I love that idea too. It's sad how unlikely it is though, and I'm sure you know but what are the chances that the largest animal to ever exist just happens to exist in this past four to ten million years when we have hundreds of millions of years of animals that existed before it that we'll never know about because of how rare the fossilization process is. I hate that we probably only have around one percent of all animals that ever existed in the rocks for us to find.

What do you think are the biggest challenges facing modern giants like the blue whale?

You're wrong. My source is that I made it the fuck up

Your guys' work really is incredible, and part of that effort is establishing what we do and don't know. Hopefully more information comes to light soon!

Hector's icthyosaur probably dwarfed the blue whale but guess we'll never know till we get an update :/

@@GoodrichthysEskdalensis It didn't get lost with the Matoaka. The Matoaka vanished in 1869. The giant centrum was discovered in 1877. Ergo, it is literally impossible that the centrum was on the Matoaka.

​@@frost7463Oh yeah I didn't get to that part. I was just coming back here to delete the comment.

Amazing work! Awesome to see new material and work come to light! Also I agree about the reconstructions. I like what George E.P. Box said, “all models are wrong, but some are useful.”

Rival? More like surpassing them at times.

Probably that biggest extinct taxa including Titanosaurs are far bigger than biggest living organisms includes blue whales

yeah, the vast majority of life that once existed is indeed lost to us, and the fossil record represents just a tiny fragment of Earth’s biological history

@AncientWildTV and probably if we include protozoans,number of species ever existed possible approach to several trillions or higher like tens of trillions species ever existed,because bacteria and microbes are more diverse than any other life forms on the Earth

Thank you! I think it's my favorite too

​@@TheVividen I'm can tell you one my question:If biggest sauropods can outsized biggest whales,they should or would be likely Titanosaurs rather than other sauropods

​@@ЕрсултанСапаргали-ц3ьoui je pense que soit c’est brachiosauridea ou un titanosauridé

@@laseriedeladilophosaure9246 you can write this on English?

​@@ЕрсултанСапаргали-ц3ьIf they did, (which based on the reliable fossils we have in our possession does not currently seem likely), the titanosaurs would be the ones to do it

It's not for something that it's been referred to as Sea Amphi!

They also held niches as apex predators in the early Cretaceous, they just weren’t as big as their nightmarish predecessors.

@@frost7463 Chad Longirostria eating birds and sea turtles

@@bkjeong4302 ichthyosaurs kept becoming apex predators after mass extinctions, it's really funny. It happened in the triassic, jurassic, and cretaceous.

​​@@frost7463et surtout les mosaur et les pliosaur avait déjà pris les places des super prédateurs des mer aux crétacé supérieure et inférieure

Well, for parts of the Jurassic at least. Then the pliosaurian Plesiosaurs hit the block

Thank you for helping out! It really helped ground the Aust section, I think

@@TheVividen whether it did or didn’t, I’m happy to help!

blue whale sucks

blue whale sucks bland whale is so bland

@@sunmoonstar9125 This is such a sigma wolf alpha male moment. I have never seen a better gigachad moment. I returned from Skibidi land and I sang: "Skibidi dop dop yes yes" for hours and hours, it was for sure fire, but now, when I saw this video, I sticked out my gyat for the rizzler and I said: "SHEESH", but today, my dad owns Roblox. 1 day later after this happening, I finally got the Grimace Shake, they all say to not drink it but I did, I became such a rizzler and got all the girls with my sigma wolf alpha male rizz. This day was so Banban moment in Ohio, I couldn't resist to play Minecraft and I ate pizza from Oklahoma with Nathanel B. I griddied so hard while it that the among us imposter started flexing his 1 2 buckle my shoe, 3 4 buckle some more, 5 6 nike kicks! This day was so sigma that Speed Mcqueen walked in and started doing the griddy with me, he started singing: "Swag in Ohio, down in Ohio" for hours until the skibidi toilet haunted us, but then Flamingo playing Roblox has saved us, the giant cameraman started gridding and we won, Flamingo is so sigma wolf alpha male. He will do everything to punch a girl to be sigma, Lankybox is so sigma too, they love Skibdi Toilet and Grimace Shake, that they drink every day. This day was so Fanum Tax that I died while screaming: "GYATT!". Now, I'm in Heaven and I'm singing so hard: "Skibidi toilet, skibidi skibidi toilet" that God said: "No way, fatherless." and he sent me to Hell, where the Devil was gridding so hard with Flamingo playing Roblox, but then, a sigma wolf alpha male entered in Hell just like a Giga sigma Chad. We all bowed to him and then the sigma wolf alpha male started talking: "This was for sure a sigma Giga wolf alpha Chad male ban ban day.", but then, someone entered in and said: "Uhmm, actually, it's a sigma wolf alpha male Gigachad skibidi ban ban from Ohio day.", but then, the Devil tortured the nerd so hard that he gone to the sigma L+Ratio Oklahoma moment. After some days, the Devil sent me back to Earth. I was so sad and I wanted to kill the Devil so I got into a mission to kill him. I have travelled to the Oklahoma's sigma Pizza Tower, I defeated all the sigma Gigachads, it was for sure hard, but I didn't give up. After a day, I have finally come to Ohio.Then someone walked in with a sigma smile and said: "Swag in Ohio, Down in Ohio, oh wait, I'm not a dumb, I'm a sigma." and then I said: "No, I'm a sigma." then he said: "Fight me kid." and then I said: "Bet" then he whispered to himself: "He didn't put a dot at the end of "Bet(.)"! I should... No... I must correct him before he does!" then he says: "Bet.*" then I said: "" then he got defeated and he exploded with a: "Pop!". After a while, I've saw something. It's Patrick Bateman! The most sigma wolf alpha Giga male Chad from Ohio, he is drinking Grimace Shake and coming to me while gridding and singing: "Blue coems, white coems, original coems! If your girl is angry, she wants your black pencil! If your boy is angry, he wants your black pencil!". It is too much sigma skibidi Ban Ban from Ohio that I can't resist. I have to defeat him, but I couldn't, so he killed me and now I'm in Hell again and I got my revenge on the Devil. I'm currently crying so hard right now, I will live for eternity with the sigma Flamingo playing Roblox. Thank you, young man!

Recording this clip actually had me thinking about it haha

I haven't heard about it--which study was it published in?

@@TheVividen I don't know, because information about Theropods is very difficult to find

It's 5 tons and 11 meters

​@@TheVividenBuffetaut and suteethorn 2012

​@@Tyrant678I'll have to look into it!

Good point!

Everyone must pay the Reaper Leviathan tax

Good question! While it's possible, Motani concluded that based on the eye structure of large ichthyosaurs it was unlikely that any of them were deep sea carnivores.

Actually the Gray Whale is a coastal water Benthic feeder

​@@tamaltarudey8912hmmm, then that might be possible! We don't have any indication that ichthyosaurs possessed jaw structures in any way comparable to baleen whales, however

it's also almost infinitely smarter than prehistoric reptiles and sharks 💀

You can't use the largest individuals out of a sample size of tens to hundreds of thousands of individuals to compare to prehistoric animals with a sample size of maybe 3. The average blue whale is 110 tons. If you picked 3 blue whales at random, there is a very low probability that any would exceed maybe 150 tons. Any animal over 100 tons on average is a possible competitor, and if an individual of 200+ tons is known from a very small sample size, it becomes more likely than not that the animal exceeded the blue whale. If you had a sample size of every saltwater crocodile ever recorded and three black rhinos, there is a good chance that the absolute largest crocodiles (~2 tons) would outweigh the any of the black rhinos. However, the rhino is bigger; its average of 800-1400 kilograms exceeds the croc's 400-770 kilograms for males. If you had equal sample sizes, the rhino would also win in maximum size at ~2800 kilograms. Also, 270 tons is a really high end estimate, and no measurements of blue whales over 30.5 meters are considered reliable. I've seen papers putting ~33m as an absolute limit, which could have been anywhere from 252-273 tons, which I wouldn't really consider as it definitively weighing over 270 tons. Really, the notion that the blue whale was for sure the largest animal of all time is more popular wisdom than science. Up until recently (and possibly even now) there have been no animals discovered that were larger, but that doesn't mean that they could not have existed. There is no known biological reason why an animal could not have grown larger than a blue whale. Even if the Aust Colossus does turn out to be smaller than current estimates suggest, and all of the other contenders currently known go the same way, than the blue whale still might not be the largest animal of all time. We only know a tiny fraction of all extinct species; statistically, it is highly unlikely that we know of the largest ever.

@@TheWigglergler well an predator bigger than a blue whale would be *slow* most likely it's the largest animal ever because prehistoric animals are really overatted

@@TheWigglergler anyways some modern cetaceans may not be bigger than an aust HOWEVER they're still far more impressive and superior 🤑

@@লবণহানটারman "Superior" is subjective, I suppose, but there is a good chance that it was quite a bit smarter and faster than you think. A lot of prehistoric animals (notably Tyrannosaurus) were most likely much smarter than people tend to assume. We simply don't know because we haven't found a braincase and can't observe it in the wild.

The people who are studying these ichthyosaurs are using the most common sense available. According to the information scientists have, these animals did get this big. I don't know what you would propose the alternative to be. And sure, there might be a lot of sensationalism around these creatures, and sure, their size estimates are a bit finnicky especially for the largest like ichthyotitan, but vividen is presenting the most up to date info. I don't know what kind of circle jerking you're even trying to describe here.

@@rh_4m your average paleo community circle jerk, the same trends you bash in the early 2000s like giganotosaurus's sizing are the exact ones that occur now even with more 'accurate' methods. Its yap fest of going back to square one. Essentially meaningless and the other half of paleo fans are just closet scalies with bad deviantart accounts. Your community

I don’t think you used that metaphor correctly here 😂 they spend a lot more time arguing with each other than they do egging each other on. The Triassic was a time of massive biological experimentation, and while they probably wouldn’t make it in today’s oceans, back then they were just what was around, and for a long time they had nothing to challenge them but each other. It is also important to remember that for a good while, every time we found a sauropod that was the biggest ever we found another one, sometimes even before the paper for the “newest biggest” had even been fully published. Some of those were wrong, but some of them were correct lol. But sometimes when your job is this, you have to make guestimations and just hope that someday someone finds another specimen to prove you wrong or right.

@@sharkladyindisguise mate you ain’t seen r/paleo or any dinosaur subreddit. Went there once and it was full autism kumbaya that everything had feathers because some guy wrote paper on it

Tf do you expect them to do lol? Go find an actual specimen? Most remains of these animals are fragmented, so we have to guess a little bit on its size. But as we learn more about these creatures, our estimates get more accurate. Also, you act as if science changing is bad. Thats like the whole point lol. As our understanding of something gets better, we change it to be more accurate.