00:00So imagine stumbling upon a creature so huge it could dwarf even the largest known marine animals today.
00:07Scientists discovered the fossils of this beast on England's coast, and believe it once ruled the waves.
00:14The new species was named Ichthyotitan severinensis, but thankfully for me, scientists nicknamed it the Littlestock monster.
00:23Its estimated lengths ranged from 72 to 85 feet long, almost as big as a blue whale.
00:30Megalodon can't even compare to this. It was only about 60 feet long.
00:34And what's crazy is that this fossil we found wasn't even an adult, so who knows what their actual size was.
00:41The first piece of the Littlestock monster was discovered in 2016 in the Westbury Formation.
00:47Researchers found a 3-foot-long jaw part that belonged to an unknown species.
00:52For years, this single fragment had been driving them crazy because they had no idea what that animal was.
01:00Then, in 2020, a miracle happened, of sorts.
01:03A father with his 11-year-old daughter found the second piece of fossil on a beach.
01:08This discovery led to more findings.
01:11Finally, in 2022, the last piece of the literal jaw puzzle was found, buried along the Somerset coast.
01:18This leviathan belonged to the Shastasaurid family.
01:23Both the Littlestock monster and other Shastasaurids had one ancestor.
01:27So, all the species in this family are super similar to each other.
01:31For example, all of them were the largest marine reptiles ever to exist.
01:35Although our Littlestock monster is much larger, most Shastasaurids could grow up to only 69 feet long.
01:43And it's possible that the Littlestock monster, when fully grown, would reach up to 100 feet or even more.
01:50Both of their bodies were just perfect for cruising the ancient seas.
01:54These marine titans were elegant and slender, with an elongated snout.
01:59Other marine animals at the time were smaller and looked more like dolphins.
02:02Shastasaurids had long, paddle-like limbs adapted for efficient swimming.
02:08Their skulls show large eye sockets, which means they had excellent vision.
02:13If you were in the ocean, no matter what time it was or where you were hiding, they could spot you.
02:18They were also incredibly fast and could dive to great depths.
02:23Of course, all these things made them the most terrifying predators.
02:26They ate pretty much everything, including fish and squid, and you if you were there.
02:31They probably captured their prey like whales, opened their huge mouths, and literally sucked the fish in.
02:38What made the Littlestock monster especially scary is that it wins in the jaw competition.
02:43For other Shastasaurids, their jaws were a bit weaker.
02:47So they hunted smaller fish, kind of like today's orchids.
02:50They required vast amounts of food.
02:52This shows us that the Earth's Triassic oceans had rich, productive food webs.
02:57But the Littlestock monster has this unique feature.
03:00It could open its jaw almost 90 degrees upwards.
03:04It also had tons of powerful muscles around.
03:07Its jaws were horrifyingly strong.
03:09So while others were hunting some squids, the Littlestock monster probably hunted large fish and even other marine reptiles.
03:17Fossils of Shastasaurus have been found everywhere in the world, from North America to Asia.
03:23This means that these creatures dominated and terrorized the oceans for millions of years.
03:28Although even they weren't completely safe from scavengers.
03:31And that's exactly why we struggle to find these fossils now.
03:35Scavengers didn't leave any remnants of them.
03:37So while we have some fossils of this marine family, they mostly remain a mystery for us.
03:43They lived in the oceans about 200 million years ago, in the late Triassic period.
03:49The Earth looked completely different back then.
03:51All continents were united in one Pangaea, a huge landmass.
03:56Some parts of this supercontinent were covered with lush conifer forests.
04:00While others were dry deserts and open prairies.
04:03It was before the famous Jurassic period.
04:06But there were already first pterosaurs and amphibians.
04:09It seems like those monsters were crazy resilient.
04:12The Triassic period was super unstable.
04:15But they survived through many changes in the environment.
04:18Well, until the last one.
04:20The Triassic extinction came out of nowhere.
04:23It was one of the Earth's Big Five extinction events.
04:26It wiped out almost all species on the planet, including these leviathans.
04:31It's still not clear what happened exactly.
04:34But it looks like there was a huge tectonic activity.
04:37Volcanoes in the oceans were going crazy back then.
04:40These massive volcanic eruptions have probably altered the climate and ocean chemistry, leading
04:46to the extinction of many species.
04:48Scientists have a theory that it might have happened because there was a rain of comets
04:53flying to our planet from the Oort cloud.
04:55This likely happens about every 200 million years or so.
04:59I wasn't around then, so I'm just guessing here.
05:01In any case, after the extinction, the Earth took some time to recover.
05:07Then it entered the famous Jurassic period.
05:09More terrifying sea monsters were on the way.
05:13One of them left us a colossal skull.
05:16This fossil is 150 million years old, and it also belonged to a sea beast from Jurassic times.
05:22They called it the Sea Rex.
05:24The name is very fitting.
05:25This monster could have broken a car in half with one bite.
05:28It was also discovered accidentally.
05:32A fossil enthusiast was walking along the Jurassic coast.
05:35This place is famous for having tons of ancient fossils, all because of the erosion in stormy weather.
05:41Typically, people find small spiral fossils here.
05:45However, this time, he discovered a giant sea monster fossil.
05:49Excited, he contacted scientists.
05:51They arrived at the spot right away and then had to carefully climb down a cliff to search for the rest of the skull.
05:57This fragment alone is 6 1⁄2 feet long.
06:01Turns out, it's a newly discovered species of pliosaurs, giant predators of the ancient seas.
06:07Pliosaurs were among the largest marine predators ever.
06:10Some of them grew up to 40 feet long.
06:12They used their huge teeth to snatch and devour prey, including other reptiles.
06:17Well, at least those creatures are far gone.
06:20But what about the horrors that still live in our oceans?
06:22Recently, biologists discovered the world's longest animal, the one that's still alive to this day.
06:30They found it off Australia's coast, on the Gascoyne coast, a very mysterious and unexplored place.
06:37There, underwater vehicles stumbled upon a frightening 150-foot-long siphonophore.
06:43It's twice as long as many blue whales and three times as long as a humpback whale.
06:48Doesn't it kind of look like one of those toy string worms?
06:52But this creature isn't friendly at all.
06:54It's a string-like deep-sea predator.
06:57What's even more scary is that this isn't actually one creature.
07:01It's a colony of small clones working together as one.
07:04Basically, collective consciousness.
07:07Ooh, bored.
07:08Together, they stretch out like a single long string in the water.
07:12This creature might be the longest siphonophore ever found, and it was discovered at a depth of around 2,000 feet.
07:20Siphonophores, similar to jellyfish, capture their prey by dangling, stinging tentacles in the water.
07:26When their tentacles touch small crustaceans and fish, they get paralyzed.
07:30And then, they're reeled up to the colony's body.
07:34Expeditions to Western Australia's underwater canyons were definitely worth it.
07:38Together with that siphonophore, scientists have discovered up to 30 potential new marine species.
07:44Among them were a new octopus or squid, a long-tailed sea cucumber, glass sponges, and giant hyroids, colonies of animals resembling upside-down jellyfish.
07:55None of them have been seen before in Australia.
07:58But most of them weren't as scary as the one that was recently discovered in the Gulf of Mexico.
08:03This creature is straight out of a sci-fi thriller.
08:08A 26-foot-long mangapenna squid, or a bigfin squid.
08:12It was discovered near an offshore oil rig at a depth of more than 7,800 feet.
08:17It has incredibly long, elastic tentacles, which can be 15 to 20 times longer than its body.
08:24It holds them at right angles to its body, making it look even creepier, almost as if it has elbows.
08:30And yes, it's another deep-sea predator.
08:34These 10 tentacles probably help the squid trap their prey and drag it onto the seafloor.
08:39We barely know anything about this extraterrestrial-looking creature because they're very hard to find and study.
08:46And if you think their tentacles are awful, just check out these creatures with 20 arms.
08:51This thing looks like a facehugger.
08:53This new species is lurking in the frozen depths of Antarctica.
08:57Experts were searching for cryptic sea animals known as promachocrinus, or Antarctic feather stars.
09:04They're kind of similar to starfish and sea cucumbers, but have an otherworldly appearance and can live up to 6,500 feet below the surface.
09:12It's called the Antarctic strawberry feather star.
09:15Despite its pretty name, its appearance is anything but cute.
09:19It has a bizarre strawberry-like body from which 20 spindly arms branch off.
09:25Its coloring ranges from purple to dark reddish, and the arms all have different lengths and thickness.
09:31Who knows how many more of such scary creatures we'll discover in the future?
09:36What is this type of thing?
09:46What is this type of thing?
09:50What is this type?
09:53What is this type of thing?
09:57How many things you see?
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