The Most Unbelievable Fossils Ever Found

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If you're into fossil hunting or just love amazing discoveries, you won't want to miss our latest video on the Most Unbelievable Fossils Ever Found. We'll take you on a journey through some incredible finds that have shocked the world of archeology. From prehistoric creatures to ancient plants, these fossils tell stories millions of years old. Whether you're a seasoned fossil enthusiast or just curious about the past, this is something you’ve got to see. Hit play and join us on this fascinating exploration! Don't miss out on these mind-blowing discoveries.

Transcript

00:00A piece of whale rib has recently been found in a North Carolina mine.

00:04Not a big deal, some might think.

00:06Hey, why can't a whale be a miner, right?

00:09But this fragment offers scientists a unique glimpse

00:12at the interactions between prehistoric sharks and whales

00:15from around 3 to 4 million years ago.

00:19The thing is, three tooth marks embellish the rib.

00:22That means that the whale was once badly bitten by an animal with a super-powerful jaw.

00:27But judging by the spacing between the tooth marks,

00:30and it reaches almost 2.5 inches,

00:33this animal could be a mega-toothed shark.

00:35I'm talking about the megalodon.

00:38Or it could be a different shark species, which was around at that time.

00:41The curvature of the shark's jaw shows that the animal was relatively small,

00:46between 13 and 20 feet long.

00:48Yeah, small.

00:49As for the whale, it seems to be the ancestor of a great blue or humpback whale.

00:54Researchers are amazed.

00:56You don't usually expect to find evidence of animal interaction and behavior

01:00preserved in the fossil record.

01:02After examining the sample carefully,

01:05they concluded that the shark must have gone away with a mouthful.

01:08But the whale had survived because most of the fossil fragment

01:12is covered with what is known as woven bone.

01:15It quickly forms in response to localized infection.

01:18Such bone isn't particularly strong,

01:20and later, the body remodels it into compact bone tissue.

01:23But it takes time.

01:26The presence of this bone means that the healing was incomplete,

01:29and the whale passed away 2-6 weeks after the unfortunate encounter.

01:33On the other hand, its demise could have been unrelated to the infection and injury.

01:38Only a handful of fossils show such kinds of interactions between ancient animals.

01:43You can often find bite marks on fossils,

01:46indicating where the animal passed away and its carcass was scavenged.

01:50But this fossil is one of a few examples that not only show a wound

01:54inflected by another animal, but also demonstrate that the prey survived.

01:59All fossils are exciting for paleontologists.

02:03Yes, they need to get out more.

02:04But some might look terrifying to regular people.

02:07For example, look at this picture of tentacle arms and octagonal-shaped heads.

02:12When it first appeared in mass media,

02:14internet users claimed that it was some ancient organism that had come from space.

02:18Others thought the story was fake.

02:21But in fact, both the picture and the fossil are real.

02:25The fossil is known as a mortality plate,

02:28a fossilized representation of a mass extinction event of one or several species.

02:33The fossil actually contains more than a dozen specimens

02:36of a type of marine organism called a crinoid.

02:40Despite their looks, crinoids were not plants but marine animals.

02:44This particular species lived deep underwater on the seafloor.

02:47Crinoids were related to starfish, sea urchins, and brittle stars.

02:52These creatures could attach themselves to the seafloor with stalks made up of flexible porous

02:57disks connected by soft tissue.

03:00The stalks were hollow, and that's where the animal's nervous system was located.

03:04Crinoids absorbed oxygen through thin-walled tube feet.

03:08The creatures usually reached the length of more than eight inches

03:11and had five arms lined with leathery-looking, tentacle-like structures.

03:15They fed on plankton and sloughed off organic material.

03:20Now, even though these fossil finds seem to be super exciting,

03:24few creatures in the fossil record confused scientists as much as the Tully monster.

03:29This curious sea creature sported a toothy, trunk-like snout and eyes splayed out on a rigid rod.

03:35But the most bizarre thing?

03:37It has been impossible to classify.

03:40Researchers have been considering a variety of organisms,

03:43for example, segmented worms, swimming slugs, and primitive eel-like creatures,

03:48since the monster was discovered in 1966.

03:51Recently, they have even tried to connect it to some species of jawless fish

03:56with a backbone-like structure.

03:57A team of scientists from Japan has used high-resolution laser scanners

04:02to examine the anatomy of Tully monster fossils in 3D.

04:06They concluded that the enigmatic fossil might be an invertebrate after all.

04:11And still, the true identity of the creature remains elusive.

04:15In the 1950s, amateur fossil hunter Francis Tully

04:18found a ghostly imprint of a torpedo-shaped organism

04:22with a huge tail fin in the Maison Creek fossil beds in Illinois.

04:26Tully had never seen anything similar to the torpedo structure.

04:30He took his find to Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History.

04:34Paleontologists working there were baffled as well.

04:37Since then, scientists haven't been able to determine

04:40where the creature fits on the phylogenic family tree,

04:43or where they should spend Thanksgiving.

04:46In 1741, an explorer and captain named Vitus Johansson Baring

04:51led an expedition to map the coast of Alaska.

04:53The ship he was on got shipwrecked on what later became known as Baring Island.

04:58And they got hungry.

05:00Half the crew survived thanks to the discovery of an extremely large sea cow.

05:05With the meat of these animals nourishing them,

05:07the sailors managed to build a small ship from the wreckage and return home.

05:11On their way back, a scientist who was among them

05:14spent his time documenting the animals and plants they had found.

05:17The sea cow was particularly interesting because without it,

05:21the crew wouldn't have survived.

05:23These animals were more than 26 feet long and weighed around 10 tons.

05:28All sea cows are a member of the order Cyrenia,

05:31marine mammals more closely related to elephants than cows.

05:35The scientists described them as having black skin,

05:38a small head, and stubby forelimbs.

05:41Those sea cows floated on the water's surface, munching on kelp.

05:44After the information about these animals became widespread,

05:48sea otter fur trading expeditions made use of that convenient depot and route.

05:53Sea cows were docile and could be easily hunted.

05:56Long story short, within 27 years after the scientists mentioned those animals,

06:01they were driven to extinction.

06:03But it's not the saddest part.

06:05The fossil record reveals a much deeper and darker history.

06:09Fossils of sea cows have been discovered all over the world,

06:13from Japan to Mexico.

06:15It means that the animal once thrived in the vast kelp beds around the entire North Pacific Rim.

06:21That small population discovered by the expedition

06:24was probably the last remains of a once much larger and way healthier population.

06:30More likely, aboriginal hunting had already reduced the numbers of these animals

06:34to near-extinction levels.

06:36And the final blow came from Western hunters.

06:39The living close relatives of those ancient sea cows are rarely hunted today.

06:43Still, they're under threat of extinction themselves.

06:47To some, this amazing fossil might look a bit disturbing.

06:51Slaves' lentils are fossils that belong to animals called nummalites.

06:56They lived and thrived in a warm, shallow sea,

06:58covering part of Egypt around 40 million years ago.

07:01The name nummalites hints at the fact that larger specimens resemble coins.

07:06And in Egyptian folklore, they're even referred to as angels' money.

07:11These creatures have a simple, single-celled structure,

07:14which contrasts with their super-intricate skeleton.

07:17Look at this series of spiral-overlapping worlds.

07:20Each world is divided into countless tiny chambers.

07:23Nummalites can grow to be 4 inches in diameter.

07:26And still, they are the fossils of single-celled animals related to amoeba.

07:31How and why do they grow to be so large?

07:34The reason could be their symbiotic relationships with other smaller organisms.

07:39In the case of modern species,

07:41such symbionts are tiny golden-brown single-celled algae called diatoms.

07:47The shells of nummalites are relatively transparent.

07:50And since they're flat,

07:51there's a large surface area for the light needed for the diatoms to photosynthesize.

07:56For some reasons, scientists are still debating about them.

08:00The presence of plant symbionts and animals dwelling in the sea

08:03encourages the growth of a calcareous skeleton in hosts.

08:07So, the gigantic size of the nummalites in Egypt

08:10could be due to their close relationship with symbiotic diatoms.

08:14Does that make sense?

08:16Fun fact!

08:17A species of nummalites evolved very fast,

08:20and their fossils change from one layer of sediments to the next.

08:23So, the limestone used for the pyramids of Giza

08:26are so packed with such fossils

08:28that it's known as pneumolytic limestone.

08:31This limestone also contains two kinds of nummalites,

08:35the smaller slave's lentils

08:36and the larger angel's money.

08:38But those are not different species,

08:40but rather different stages in the life cycle of a single species.

08:44That's it for today!

08:45So hey, if you pacified your curiosity,

08:47then give the video a like and share it with your friends.

08:50Or if you want more, just click on these videos

08:52and stay on the Bright Side!

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