They Found Creepiest Extinct Creature Trapped in Amber for 4 Million Years

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:01]Now, here's something. Baltic amber is one of the most common resins found in the world. The reason for this is that due to the vast forests of pine, their numerous deposits are so common, they provide wonderful treasures from long ago. Ants are especially common in the Baltic amber, which comes from pine trees. Its resin is rich in sugar, so the ants often live amongst the trees close to the easy source of food. One block found in East Germany has preserved one ant that is estimated to be about 48 million years old. Think of the birthday cake. But what makes this fine interesting is another animal inside the amber. It's a might notorious hunters in the insect world capable of traveling at great speed. These guys quickly latch onto their hosts, sucking them dry. They're also capable of destroying entire hives in one go. And within this piece of amber, the amber provides a display of their final struggle. In Southeast Asia, feathers belonging to something unique have been found from 80 million years ago. They were captured in resin during the Cretaceous period, a peak time for dinosaurs. The many feathers inside are from the caloraur. It looks like a dinosaur, but this animal is more related to birds. Other feathers like this have been found in resin. They belong to aven and other non-flying dinosaurs. The discoveries have helped reimagine what dinosaurs actually look like. Still, dinosaurs may have had feathers instead of being completely bald. Of course, for most of them, the feathers weren't used for flying, but they helped the dinos warm. However, the feathers weren't all that was found, and a part of the chlorosaur's tail is also preserved. Still, it's so small and ancient that its DNA hasn't survived to map their entire genome. The enclosed tail is also very delicate, and it can't be removed from its protective amber shell. But although these findings can only be observed, they've still provided a great insight in the evolution of birds. But how does amber preserve things so effectively even at the initial stages? The trees produce the resin to protect any small gaps in the bark against feeding insects. Its antiseptic nature and lack of water content ensures it doesn't degrade for a long time. This also makes it more resilient as it petrifies over long periods, eventually becoming a fossil.

[00:02:31]Some of the oldest amber ever found was from the Triacic period, showing how long it can last. The pieces from Italy are about 230 million years old. And inside one of these ancient droplets holds the oldest arthropod ever recorded. This might found inside has provided a broader understanding to their evolution. Today, they're known to mainly annoy gardeners by feeding on the petals of flowering plants. However, at the time the might was caught, flowers didn't have any petals, and it would be without this tasty meal for another 100 million years. Now, 100 million years ago, Myanmar was part of Gondwanda, the great superc continent. At that time, Myanmar wasn't part of Asia yet, but it was still lush with a great forest, which contained many species of lizards that lived amongst the undergrowth, hiding away from dinosaurs. Many of them have been stored within amber. This fact helped discover ancestors of geckos and chameleons. By using CT scans, scientists have analyzed them, providing a glimpse into the formation of their scales, teeth, feet, and claws. It also provided an understanding of how these archaic creatures once appeared.

[00:03:47]Although mostly pieces of lizards, by using modern technology, the scientists have been able to create 3D images of the lizard. These images can reveal how those guys appeared in their full form.

[00:04:00]The images show that they still retain some of their exact features to this day, like the chameleon sticky pads used for climbing. A salamander fossil from around 20 million years ago is one of the most intact specimens ever found in amber. Details of its final moments show that it had been attacked before getting stuck in the resin. However, what's confusing about this find from the Meiosene era is that the amber was found in the Caribbean, but it came from a tree that's closer related to those from East Africa. The lizard also has ancestry from the same area. Finds like this have opened a whole new understanding about how these small lizards migrated. It's expected that they would have ridden fallen logs which took them across the seas to new homelands, not only to the Caribbean, but to all continents except for Antarctica. Nobody goes there. It's too cold. In the Dominican Republic, you can find some of the rarest of all ambers.

[00:05:00]This Dominican amber came from neotropical forests from around 20 million years ago. Many of the trees that made the resin are now extinct. The amber is almost completely see-through and can come in an array of beautiful colors. The most common colors are red, yellow, and even blue and are easily mistaken for gemstones. One was found with a flea caught in it, dating to when the forest was at its peak and the mamillian variety thrived. Fleas were likely common at the time, and this flea in particular had recently fed on a mammal before getting stuck. However, something more intriguing was found within the flea. While scientists check what mammal DNA was within the flea, they found that it was carrying an ancient bacterial blight. These bllightes have been constant throughout Earth's history, dramatically decreasing populations of animals and plants. This now extinct blight in the amber helped scientists determine how much the bacteria have evolved and how it spread.

[00:06:02]Now, most remnants of insects inside amber aren't much more than the exoskeleton bodies. But with some found in Myanmar, they were so well preserved that even the color of the insects is still intact. Colors in nature appear in three different ways. The first is bioluminescence that's produced by a chemical reaction within a living organism. The second is about pigments where the color appears in an animal or plant tissue. The third is called structural coloration and the production of colors here is explained by microscopic surfaces fine enough to react with the light. The rare insects in amber were found in the form of structural coloration, but only at specific wavelengths. It all explains the very intense colors rarely found. 99 million years later, these bugs can still show their vibrant colors, blue, purple, and green. Some of them appear so different in color and shape that they almost look like they're from another world, which of course they are, a very old one. Ants have been around for about 168 million years based on fossil evidence provided. They're well known for their social hierarchies and their hive mind system. They've dominated almost every corner of the insect world. But when these social capabilities came about have been difficult to determine. Yet recently, amber dated from a 100 million years ago has shed some light into their evolution. Several amber pieces have preserved various ant types, including the worker ants, guardian or soldier ants, and even a queen ant. Before these pieces were found, it was estimated their social nature occurred millions of years later. A piece of amber dated 100 million years ago helped shed light on the evolution of birds. A perfectly preserved bird that hatched preserved in amber was already equipped with its flight feathers. With the earlier physical abilities, they would be capable of moving around the nest by themselves at a very young age. And it's expected they could search for their own food almost immediately. But as birds continue to evolve and spend more time in the skies, their brain developed larger for their cognitive abilities.

[00:08:17]After hatching, their early development was then more focused on the brain, and the chicks slowly became more reliant on their parents over time.

[00:08:27]In Spain, a massive treasure trove of amber and other fossils has been found.

[00:08:32]Inside, there were remnants of an entire ecosystem that existed 110 million years ago. A bunch of individual fossils were found. The vast collection includes many types of insects, mollisks, arachnids, plants, 50 different dinosaur bone fragments, feathers, and hair from mammals, and a McDonald's burger wrapper. Nah, just kidding. With the abundance of findings, it's helped researchers understand the ancient terrestrial ecosystem that once existed.

[00:09:02]With loads of specific details of the environment, they've reconstructed the swamp. This way, it's now possible to experience what it was like in the world of dinosaurs.

[00:09:14]A piece of whale rib has recently been found in a North Carolina mine. Not a big deal, some might think. Hey, why can't a whale be a minor, right? But this fragment offers scientists a unique glimpse at the interactions between prehistoric sharks and whales from around 3 to 4 million years ago. The thing is, three-toothoth marks embellish the rib. That means that the whale was once badly bitten by an animal with a super powerful jaw. Judging by the spacing between the tooth marks, and it reaches almost 2 and 1/2 in, this animal could be a mega tooth shark. I'm talking about the megalodon. Or it could be a different shark species, which was around at that time. The curvature of the shark's jaw shows that the animal was relatively small, between 13 and 20 ft long. Yeah, small. As for the whale, it seems to be the ancestor of a great blue or humpback whale. Researchers are amazed. You don't usually expect to find evidence of animal interaction and behavior preserved in the fossil record.

[00:10:17]After examining the sample carefully, they concluded that the shark must have gone away with a mouthful. But the whale had survived because most of the fossil fragment is covered with what is known as woven bone. It quickly forms in response to localized infection. Such bone isn't particularly strong and later the body remodels it into compact bone tissue. But it takes time. The presence of this bone means that the healing was incomplete and the whale passed away 2 to 6 weeks after the unfortunate encounter. On the other hand, its demise could have been unrelated to the infection and injury. Only a handful of fossils show such kinds of interactions between ancient animals. You can often find bite marks on fossils indicating where the animal passed away and its carcass was scavenged. But this fossil is one of a few examples that not only show a wound inflicted by another animal, but also demonstrate that the prey survived. All fossils are exciting for paleontologists. Yes, they need to get out more, but some might look terrifying to regular people. For example, look at this picture of tentacle arms and octagonal-shaped heads. When it first appeared in mass media, internet users claimed that it was some ancient organism that had come from space. Others thought the story was fake. But in fact, both the picture and the fossil are real. The fossil is known as a mortality plate, a fossilized representation of a mass extinction event of one or several species. The fossil actually contains more than a dozen specimens of a type of marine organism called a krinoid. Despite their looks, krinoids were not plants, but marine animals. This particular species lived deep underwater on the seafloor.

[00:12:02]Krinoids were related to starfish, sea urchins, and brittle stars. These creatures could attach themselves to the seafloor with stalks made up of flexible porous discs connected by soft tissue.

[00:12:14]The stalks were hollow and that's where the animals nervous system was located.

[00:12:18]Krinoids absorbed oxygen through thinwalled tube feet. The creatures usually reached the length of more than 8 in and had five arms lined with leathery looking tentacle-like structures. They fed on plankton and sloughed off organic material.

[00:12:34]Now, even though these fossil finds seem to be super exciting, few creatures in the fossil record confuse scientists as much as the Tully Monster, this curious sea creature sported a toothy, trunk-like snout and eyes spled out on a rigid rod. But the most bizarre thing, it has been impossible to classify.

[00:12:54]Researchers have been considering a variety of organisms. For example, segmented worms, swimming slugs, and primitive eel-like creatures since the monster was discovered in 1966.

[00:13:06]Recently, they have even tried to connect it to some species of jawless fish with a backbone like structure. A team of scientists from Japan has used highresolution laser scanners to examine the anatomy of Tully Monster fossils in 3D. They concluded that the enigmatic fossil might be an invertebrate after all. And still, the true identity of the creature remains elusive. In the 1950s, amateur fossil hunter Francis Tully found a ghostly imprint of a torpedo-shaped organism with a huge tail fin in the Mison Creek fossil beds in Illinois. Tully had never seen anything similar to the torpedo structure. He took his find to Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History. Paleontologists working there were baffled as well.

[00:13:51]Since then, scientists haven't been able to determine where the creature fits on the phogenic family tree or where they should spend Thanksgiving. In 1741, an explorer and captain named Vitus Johansson Bearing led an expedition to map the coast of Alaska. The ship he was on got shipwrecked on what later became known as Bearing Island, and they got hungry. Half the crew survived thanks to the discovery of an extremely large sea cow. With the meat of these animals nourishing them, the sailors managed to build a small ship from the wreckage and return home. On their way back, a scientist who was among them spent his time documenting the animals and plants they had found. The sea cow was particularly interesting because without it, the crew wouldn't have survived.

[00:14:37]These animals were more than 26 ft long and weighed around 10 tons. All sea cows are member of the order serenia, marine mammals more closely related to elephants than cows. The scientists describe them as having black skin, a small head, and stubby forlims. Though sea cows floated on the water surface, munching on kelp. After the information about these animals became widespread, sea otter fur trading expeditions made use of that convenient depot and route.

[00:15:07]Sea cows were docel and could be easily hunted. Long story short, within 27 years after the scientists mentioned those animals, they were driven to extinction. But it's not the saddest part. The fossil record reveals a much deeper and darker history. Fossils of sea cows have been discovered all over the world from Japan to Mexico. It means that the animal once thrived in the vast kelp beds around the entire North Pacific Rim. That small population discovered by the expedition was probably the last remains of a once much larger and way healthier population.

[00:15:44]More likely, Aboriginal hunting had already reduced the numbers of these animals to near extinction levels, and the final blow came from western hunters. The living close relatives of those ancient sea cows are rarely hunted today. Still, they're under threat of extinction themselves.

[00:16:02]To some, this amazing fossil might look a bit disturbing. Slaves lentils are fossils that belong to animals called numalytes. They lived and thrived in a warm shallow sea covering part of Egypt around 40 million years ago. The name numalytes hints at the fact that larger specimens resemble coins. And in Egyptian folklore, they're even referred to as angel's money. These creatures have a simple single-sellled structure which contrasts with their super intricate skeleton. Look at this series of spiral overlapping whs. Each wh is divided into countless tiny chambers.

[00:16:38]Numalites can grow to be 4 in in diameter and still they are the fossils of single-sellled animals related to amoeba. How and why did they grow to be so large? The reason could be their symbiotic relationships with other smaller organisms. In the case of modern species, such symbiants are tiny golden brown single-sellled algae called datoms. The shells of numalytes are relatively transparent and since they're flat, there's a large surface area for the light needed for the datoms to photosynthesize.

[00:17:11]For some reasons, scientists are still debating about them. The presence of plant symbants and animals dwelling in the sea encourages the growth of a calccarious skeleton in hosts. So, the gigantic size of the numalytes in Egypt could be due to their close relationship with symbiotic datoms. Does that make sense? Fun fact, a species of numalytes evolve very fast and their fossils change from one layer of sediments to the next. So, the limestone used for the pyramids of Giza are so packed with such fossils that it's known as numalytic limestone. This limestone also contains two kinds of numalytes. the smaller slaves lentils and the larger angel's money. But those are not different species, but rather different stages in the life cycle of a single species. In 2011, scientists from Chile found a weirdl looking fossil in Antarctica that looked like a squashed football. Almost 10 years later, the rock just sat on a shelf in Chile's National Museum of Natural History with no specific label.

[00:18:14]It went by the thing in the museum because it looked like something from a science fiction movie. When the scientists finally got their hands on the strange fossil, it turned out it was actually a giant soft shell egg from around 66 million years ago. This one is more than 11 in long and 7 in wide. A regular chicken egg is just 2 1/2 in long and an ostrich egg is almost 6 in long for comparison. So, the thing won the title of the biggest soft shell egg ever found and the second largest egg of any animal we know of. The only bigger egg that was ever found was that of the extinct Madagascan elephant bird, which is also one and a half times as tall as Michael Jordan, the bird, not the egg.

[00:19:00]The Antarctic egg is also special because it's the first fossil ever found in this part of the world. So, whoever left it there must have been one big creature. Probably a giant sea turtle that lived long ago, like a mouse. This is surprising because most scientists thought these creatures didn't even lay eggs. So, this discovery could change what we know about them.

[00:19:25]The egg is also unique because it has a thin eggshell and no pores, which is totally different from most dinosaur eggs. It actually looks more like the eggs of lizards and snakes, but it came from a giant creature related to these animals. No known dinosaurs or flying reptiles from that time and place were big enough to lay such a huge egg. So, it must have been a mossaur after all, but we can't be 100% sure. Scientists did a lot of work and studied 259 types of living reptiles like lizards and snakes and their eggs. From this they figured out that the mommy who laid the egg was probably at least 23 feet long, not counting her tail. During the late Cretaceous period, this part of Antarctica might have been like a nursery. Paleontologists have found bones of tiny mosasaurs and plesiosaurs in the same area along with bones from the grownup ones.

[00:20:23]Archaeologists in Norway made another cool but literally discovery and found dozens of arrows that have been hidden in ice for 6,000 years. They were melting out of a large ice patch in the high mountains covering an area of about 45 football fields. In 2014 and 2016, when the summers were extra warm, scientists went to an ice patch called Langon to look around. They also found lots of reindeer bones and antlers there. Some of the arrows were whole and some in pieces along with five arrow heads around the melting ice patch. This is more arrows than have been found at any other frozen site in the world. Some of the 68 found arrows date back to the Neolithic period, and the newest ones are from the 14th century of the common era. Ice is like the perfect time machine that can preserve whatever ends up there in an almost perfect condition.

[00:21:18]Langon became famous as one of the first ice patch sites after a local hiker found a 3,300y old leather shoe right next to its edge. Scientists are studying places like this to understand how people used these sites and how the ice patches from Norway to North America changed over time.

[00:21:40]Now, once upon a time, around 32,000 years ago, to be exact, a squirrel buried some seeds near a river in Siberia. Am I the only one getting the ice age vibes? Anyway, these seeds belong to a plant with cute white flowers. Thousands of years later, a group of scientists found these seeds buried deep in the frozen ground about as far down as a 12story building is tall. The seeds were surrounded by ice and bones of animals like mammoths, bison, and woolly rhinoceroses. The mature seeds had been damaged, maybe by some squirrel, but some of the younger seeds still had good plant parts inside them. The scientists carefully took those out and put them in small containers to help them grow. And here comes the coolest part. They were able to grow the plants. Their flowers were shaped a little differently from the flowers of the same plant that grows today. After a year, the ice age plant even made new seeds. Based on this, the scientists suggested that perafrost could be a depository for an ancient gene pool, and we could find extinct species there and bring them back to life.

[00:22:52]Scientists on an icebreaker in Antarctica were looking for whales, but found something way more unusual. The camera behind the ship, which is as heavy as a car, detected 16 million ice fish nests on the floor of the Wedell Sea. The nests were located about every 10 in in all directions and covered an area of 93 square miles, which is slightly bigger than the whole of Washington DC. The colony even had a distinct border, which was a line in the sand. The scientists were in the area because they were studying a special spot in the ocean where the water was a little warmer than the water around it.

[00:23:30]In this warmer water, they found tiny animals called zoo plankton near the top. When the young ice fish hatch, they swim up to this area to eat the zoo plankton before going back down to the seafloor to grow up and have their own offspring. Since there was so much food, it made sense to see ice fish in this warm water. But they didn't expect to find such a huge number of ice fish nests, much more than anyone had ever seen before.

[00:23:59]New Zealand's Antarctic Heritage Fund found some old photo negatives in a HUD in Antarctica. They turned out to be unique images from the Ross Sea Party.

[00:24:09]It was a famous failed expedition led by Ernest Shackleton. He wanted to become the first person to cross Antarctica by land from the Wedell Sea to the Ross Sea, passing through the South Pole. But things went wrong when their ship, the Aurora, was blown out to sea. They had to use the hut from another explorer, Captain Robert Falcon Scott. His goal was to be the first person to reach the North Pole, but sadly he didn't succeed either. The negatives were made of cellulose nitrate and were found stuck together in the small box. The trust took the negatives back to New Zealand where they carefully separated them and discovered 22 hidden images. Many of the photos were damaged, but the trust could still recognize some familiar places around McMmero Sound, a well-known area in Antarctica. No one knows for sure who took the pictures.

[00:25:04]In December 2021, some scientists noticed a strange mark on the Larsson ice shelf, a giant sheet of ice off the eastern coast of Antarctica. They thought it might be a river flowing under the ice. So, they drilled down over 1,600 ft to check it out. They expected to find water, but they didn't expect to see that the water was full of fastmoving creatures called amphipods.

[00:25:30]The scientists also found that the water in the underground river had unusual layers of currents moving in different directions which they still don't fully understand. Another surprising thing happened during their research. On December 20th of the same year, a volcano erupted far away in Tonga and the pressure waves from the eruption were detected all the way down in the ice river in Antarctica. It shows how everything on our planet is connected, even in the most distant places.

[00:26:05]Something exciting and kind of unexpected popped out among the rocks of the Eco Valley in Peru. The bones of a really old whale that lived almost 40 million years ago. At first, no one was really impressed because the bones they found were big and weirdly shaped. So, people just thought they were looking at giant boulders.

[00:26:27]I mean, that's cool, too. But things got way better when they realized those were the remains of a very large ancient animal that roamed along the coast of ancient Peru. Plus, it was probably the heaviest creature that ever lived.

[00:26:41]Sorry, blue whale. I know you worked hard to get to the top.

[00:26:45]The length of over 100 ft and weight of more than 200 tons brought you the status of the biggest animal on our planet. But it seems you've held the title long enough. Time to hand it over to our next candidate. And that one's really gigantic.

[00:27:01]This ocean beast was probably shorter than the blue whale, but heavier with a weight that could be between 93 tons and 370 tons. If it's closer to the higher number, it'll make Paracetus the biggest animal ever known to have lived on Earth.

[00:27:19]And it seems its weight was the result of having extremely thick, dense bones.

[00:27:24]You can see such bones today in manatees or some other early whales.

[00:27:30]Dense bones are a great tool for such marine mammals. This feature makes them heavy and allows them to stay submerged most of the time. But at the same time, if their body was too heavy, they would end up sinking all the time and they would waste too much energy to move back up to the surface. So to avoid sinking, marine mammals need to have enough lighter tissues like muscles and fat to help them float in the water without using too much energy.

[00:27:59]Now, scientists didn't have the whole skeleton, which makes it hard to tell how big the animal was, but they used the ratio of the heavy bones to the lighter tissues in other marine mammals to estimate the overall weight of this giant ancient whale.

[00:28:14]Experts found these fossils about 13 years ago and spent the next decade freeing the whale from the rock. Its anatomy and age showed this whale was a cousin of Basilosaurus, a whale that had a long snout full of sharp teeth and a sleek body similar to that of an eel.

[00:28:34]Even if Paracetus wasn't bigger than the blue whale, it was still a giant that ruled the ocean depths.

[00:28:41]Unlike modern whales, there's a possibility that this ancient fellow was a predator that liked to go after bigger prey. And this also changes how we see the history of whales. Scientists used to think these magnificent creatures became really big about 5 million years ago when they started eating lots of small creatures. But here's the proof that giant whales existed even before that. But it's still unclear how this whale managed to find enough food to sustain its enormous body.

[00:29:13]Plus, it's still hard to tell what exactly this ancient creature had on its menu. It was pretty large and not such a fast swimmer. So, it's possible it searched for food in shallow waters.

[00:29:24]Then, it probably ate crustaceans, clams, or some other small animals hiding in the sand.

[00:29:30]One theory says it was a scavenger, which basically means it munched on remains of everything that would come its way.

[00:29:38]It's not so unusual to find marine animals in deserts. Many of these regions used to be covered with water anyway. The Sahara in Africa is a perfect example. About 50 to 100 million years ago, this was not a dry desert, but a shallow saltwater body called the Trans Sahara Seaway. The land is not wet there anymore, of course, but people who lived in that area knew about it because they used to find old shells across the desert.

[00:30:07]The sea was about 164 ft deep. That sounds enough for a nice swim. Some would say this area looked like modern Puerto Rico with lots of sun and shallow water. Mangrove forests were a common thing as well as seafloors covered with mollisks like snails and clams. The marine sediment that was left behind after the sea had dried up is full of different fossils. And the animal that lived in that ancient underwater world didn't look friendly.

[00:30:37]Plus, they were much bigger than their relatives from modern times. So, a regular-sized human would end up as a snack, not even a whole meal.

[00:30:46]Normally, when animals live on small islands, they can become much bigger than their relatives from the mainland.

[00:30:52]This is something we call island gigantism, and it happens because there are more resources or fewer predators on islands.

[00:31:01]Maybe the same thing happened in the Trans Saharan Seaway. Even though it wasn't an actual island, the water moved in and out, which created little pockets of water.

[00:31:12]And specific conditions in these pockets might have helped animals grow bigger.

[00:31:17]So, we're talking about giant sea snakes, catfish, and fish that no longer exist today. One had incredibly strong jaws, and the animal used them to eat hard things and even crush shells. Their teeth showed they were fierce predators.

[00:31:33]other animals had every reason to be afraid of. They went through some changes when it came to diet, similar to some types of piranhas.

[00:31:42]And the competition to get to the top of the food chain wasn't a joke. Not when there were also such large predators as sharks, crocodiles, and ancient relatives of elephants.

[00:31:55]Sahara went through different phases. If you could use a time machine and take a peek at Earth's largest hot desert as it was about 6,000 years ago, you wouldn't have to struggle with sand and heat, you'd have a nice walk through a green and pretty lush place.

[00:32:12]In the past, people who lived in that area didn't leave drawings on cave walls that showed camels, sand dunes, and scorpions.

[00:32:21]All those things you'd see in today's Sahara.

[00:32:24]Instead, they drew crocodiles. That's additional evidence that the Sahara used to have a lot of water and plants, enough to support these big yet scary animals.

[00:32:36]Around 3 billion years ago, Earth might have been mostly covered with water.

[00:32:41]Today, it's about 71% of its surface, but it seems that our planet used to be a giant ocean world with no continents at all, just some scattered islands.

[00:32:52]Scientists studied special rocks in Western Australia that formed in a place deep under the ocean called a hydrothermal vent system. To explain this better, it's important to mention two common oxygen types, 016 and 08. 08 is heavier because it has extra neutrons. 016 evaporates from water more easily. And as researchers studied an old ocean floor, they found a lot of 018, more than in today's oceans.

[00:33:23]This way, they realized ancient Earth had less dry land than Earth today.

[00:33:29]Australia is a good spot to conduct these studies because a long time ago, it also used to be a beautiful place with large animals and lush rainforests.

[00:33:40]But as time went by, the land became drier and Australia had more deserts formed, such as the Great Victoria Desert. Rainforest remained only on the edges of the continent.

[00:33:52]What happens with deserts across the globe is called desertification.

[00:33:57]That's when land that used to be good for growing things turns into a desert or something similar. Our planet changes over time together with its climate. But desertification also happens because of human activities like mining, farming, and building cities.

[00:34:15]And when land turns into a desert, it's a problem because it can't support people and animals anymore. Food doesn't grow there. There's not enough clean water and animals lose their homes. To help with this problem, there's a plan many countries agreed to. They decided to work with farmers to take care of the land, fix damaged areas, and manage water better. All in all, to make our planet a better place for life.

[00:34:44]Dinosaurs, big ancient bugs, creepy spiders, and scary insects are all cute animals compared to the monsters that lived on Earth about a half a billion years ago.

[00:34:56]For example, here's a creature that swam in the water like a stingray and had three eyes. Its mouth was like a pencil sharper. Two long claws with forked tips like pinches protruded from its head and its gills were somewhere in the back.

[00:35:10]This is not a thing from a sci-fi movie.

[00:35:13]This is Mossura. Its remains are preserved in excellent condition. Let's look at it more closely and study other similar monsters.

[00:35:23]The Cambrian Explosion. Remember this name. This period is also called the biological big bang. The time when a huge number of different living creatures began to appear in the ocean, large, small, and tiny.

[00:35:38]The ancestors of almost all modern animal groups were most likely born during the Cambrian explosion, which lasted from 541 to 485 million years ago. It was a time when the first truly effective and terrifying predators appeared on Earth. One of them was Mosura. It's only the size of an index finger, but you would never want to meet such a creature while swimming in the sea. It's scary to imagine what it could do with its pencil sharpener-shaped mouth. And you probably wouldn't be able to hide from it because come on, it had two eyes on the sides and one big eye on its forehead.

[00:36:16]Mousura belonged to a group of anthropods. Scientists called it a sea moth since it reminded them of a moth.

[00:36:23]This thing used a flap-like apparatus similar to wings to float in the water like a stingray. This monster was quite creepy, but its appearance may seem familiar because it's a distant relative of modern spiders, crabs, centipedes, and mods. Scientists found several 56 million-year-old Mossura fossils. But unlike many other similar finds, these ones have been preserved in excellent condition. The found fossils showed sharp claws, a toothy jaw, and large gills in the tail section. Some parts of the fossil were so clear that they revealed the details of the creature's internal anatomy, including parts of its nervous and circulatory systems and digestive tract. It had jointed limbs like those of modern insects and crustaceations.

[00:37:12]When this monster swam in the sea, it probably grabbed its prey with long spiked claws sticking out of its head.

[00:37:19]Many Mosura relatives have claws covered with multiple spikes which help them grab food. But that ancient creature had smooth claws forked at the tips. That is, it grabbed the prey with those tongs using them like chopsticks and then brought it to its mouth. Of course, this is an assumption, and nobody saw how this creature actually did it. Unlike many other similar animals, Mosura's posterior segmented body was studded with gills. Scientists don't know why this was necessary, but they assume that such an unusual breathing system helped to adapt to an environment with low oxygen content. Perhaps Mossura led a very active reproductive lifestyle that required high oxygen consumption.

[00:38:04]Creepy, dangerous, and reproducing fast.

[00:38:07]An excellent set of qualities for one of the most dangerous predators of antiquity. But what did Mosura eat? It probably caught different types of worms and small anthropods.

[00:38:19]It's nice to think that this monster lived so long ago and was so small. But what if this creature was the size of a shark and was swimming in the ocean these days? Perhaps it would become a dominant dweller and people would swim much less along the coast.

[00:38:35]Mossura lived in the water but was discovered in the Burgess Shale rock formation in the Canadian Rockies. Many mountains on Earth were once the seabed inhabited by strange creatures. One of them was Oabinia. It had five eyes, a mouth facing backward, a long trunk and claws instead of a nose. Wait, what?

[00:38:57]It's too strange even for science fiction, even for outer space. In its eccentricity, Opabinia was perhaps the loneliest creature on Earth. Scientists couldn't find another species that would be similar to this individual until recently. Meet Uora. It seems to belong to the same species as Opabinia. Its inch long body was divided into 14 to 15 furrows. Each of them ended in a pointed flap. Oabinia had the same body, but it's unlikely that both monsters were friends. The difference between their timelines was several million years.

[00:39:34]It's hard to imagine why these monsters needed such strange body structures. Why haven't modern filmmakers used the design of those animals to create cool space monsters yet?

[00:39:46]Okay, they were creepy creatures, but what about weird and kind of useless ones? Scientists have discovered Sue, a legless creature with no head turned inside out. Huh? This 444 millionyear-old creature was found in South Africa north of Cape Town. They called it Sue after the discoverer's mother. In fact, it's some kind of new anthropod species that may have lived in low oxygen waters. This creature was turned inside out and the outer shell with the legs and head was lost. Thanks to mineralization, muscles, tendons, and even Sue's intestines were preserved on the fossil. It's a great success to find such detailed remains of an ancient creature. However, scientists still can't determine the evolutionary history of this species. They're sure that it was a primitive marine anthropod.

[00:40:41]Okay, we can see that half a billion years ago, Earth was filled with creepy monsters, which fortunately are now extinct. But what about trees? Were they the same as we see now? Or was there something else? Something creepy?

[00:40:58]Oh, yeah. Scientists have discovered a new kind of living organism similar to a tree or a mushroom. It was gigantic and had a very minimalistic design. Meet the prototaxes.

[00:41:11]It's basically just a big stick with a round end poking out of the ground. It was smooth, didn't have the usual tree bark, and looked more like a mushroom without a cap. But scientists have recently found out that it wasn't a mushroom at all. Protoxidities probably belonged to a previously unknown branch of life. Prototaxides is considered to be the first giant organism in the history of the planet that lived on land. It existed about 420 to 375 million years ago during the Deonian period. It was the time when plants began to spread across dry land forming large forests. Over time, they began to grow leaves and form roots in the ground. Then the first seed plants appeared.

[00:41:59]The real colonization of land began. The first anthropods such as centipedes, arachnids, and other unpleasant creatures began to walk among those forests. Meanwhile, the water was filled with a huge biodiversity.

[00:42:13]There was a giant superc continent on the planet and smaller parts began to break off it. During this period, prototaxities towered over the land.

[00:42:22]Some of these things reached 26 feet high and 3 ft wide. It's like a three-story house and as thick as a palm tree. But what was it? A plant? A mushroom? Algae? Perhaps? Scientists discovered them in the middle of the 19th century, but only in 2007 did they conduct chemical analysis. Research showed that it was most likely a giant mushroom, but in 2025, scientists refuted this conclusion. It turns out this may have been an unknown life form that existed separately from the kingdom of fungi, animals, plants, and protests.

[00:42:59]Scientists noticed that the inner part of prototaxes consisted of a number of tubes. There are similar tubes inside mushrooms, but the tubes of that ancient living thing branched and joined differently. They even had a different chemical composition. The main building block of mushrooms is chitten. But the prototaxes contained chemicals similar to lignen, a substance found in the bark of trees and other plants, and its anatomy differs from the structure of any other organism known to us.

[00:43:29]What were they doing on Earth? Just chilled and enjoyed the bloom of life?

[00:43:34]Did they produce some kind of fruit like a banana with eyes and claws? Scientists don't know. What if it was something that was brought to Earth from outer space? What if they were flowers planted by another civilization?

[00:43:48]What do you think?

[00:43:52]Ooh. From giant spiders to venomous snakes, we all get freaked out by Australian creatures. Yeah, me too.

[00:44:00]But newly discovered fossils show that things were way more dangerous 120 million years ago when this land was completely ruled by massive razor clawed megaaptors. Yeah, I'm glad I wasn't around then.

[00:44:14]These dinosaurs were about 26 ft long and walked on two legs just like the famous T-Rex.

[00:44:21]They were fast, fierce hunters with a superpower, their hug.

[00:44:26]Yep. Their massive, muscular forearms had huge, curved claws, perfect for grabbing and holding on to prey. Uh-oh.

[00:44:34]They would wrap their arms around their poor victims, just like a hug, and trap them with no chance of escape. And even though their teeth were quite small, they were still sharp enough to rip through flesh.

[00:44:46]The first time we heard about megaaptors was in the late '9s when a paleontologist discovered their fossils in the region of Patagonia, Argentina.

[00:44:55]Since then, no one has ever found a complete skeleton, only fragments.

[00:45:00]But probably the most important one yet was uncovered in Australia at the beginning of this year. Researchers were exploring Victoria's stunning coastline when they stumbled upon megaaptor fossils.

[00:45:14]First, they spotted bones from its lower legs and a few vertebrae washed up on the beach. Even though they were working with just a couple of fragments, a deeper analysis confirmed that these belong to a megaaptor. And not just any mega, it was the oldest one ever discovered.

[00:45:32]This discovery gets even more exciting because it adds weight to the theory that these dinosaurs might have originated in Australia. But we already knew that they roamed the land down under since early 2023 when researchers found the top of a megaaptor skull in the country.

[00:45:49]So, let's rewind a bit. We first found their remains in Argentina. Right.

[00:45:54]Right. But then years later, researchers found fossils of the same family of dinosaurs on the other side of the world in Australia. If the ones in Oceanana were older, how did these creatures end up in South America? Of course, they didn't fly there. They didn't cross continents by swimming either, although there is a theory that they could swim.

[00:46:15]Remember, we're talking about the dinosaur era, which happened millions of years ago. And back then, Australia and Argentina were actually pretty close.

[00:46:24]Basically, they were one. Both lands were part of the superc continent known as Gonduana.

[00:46:30]And they were connected through Antarctica.

[00:46:33]Wait, but wasn't this path freezing? I mean, yeah, these dinos had to pass through Antarctica to get to their destination, but they weren't freezing their tails off. This all happened during the mid Cretaceous period when the weather was super warm. Back then, the poles were covered in plants, not ice. So, let's just say they took full advantage of the good weather to make the crossing.

[00:46:56]Now, about 180 million years ago, Gwanda started to break apart. At some point, Australia drifted away from the superc continent, cutting it off from other land masses, including South America.

[00:47:09]That's why the same dinosaur showed up in completely different parts of the world. Mystery solved. Now, let's get back to that recent discovery. The researchers didn't just find a few traces of megaaptors on the beach. In total, they uncovered 250 dinosaur bones at the site, but only five of them were really important. They belong to three different species of dinosaurs that, as it turns out, all lived in Victoria at the same time. So yeah, we've already talked about those first two bones. They were from the mega raptor. Next, we have a shin bone from a onen.

[00:47:46]That's my best shot at pronouncing it.

[00:47:48]It's a dino, also known as the southern raptor. This is a type of dramosaur with a long snout.

[00:47:55]And the last two shin bones of different sizes, came from a carturoonttosaurus, whose name means shark tooth lizard.

[00:48:03]This one is a particularly big deal for two reasons. Number one, it's the first evidence that this species lived in Australia. And number two, it was small.

[00:48:13]And that is pretty surprising since we've always thought of this species as being massive. Fossils found in Argentina, for example, show this dinosaur reached a length of about 36 ft. But the one in Australia was much smaller, measuring only around 6 to 10 ft long. and it's still plenty big.

[00:48:32]Basically, what we're saying is that the way predators were ranked in these two parts of the world was completely different. In South America, carturo donttosaurs grew to massive T-Rexized giants, towering over megaraptors and dominating the landscape. But in Australia, it was the complete opposite.

[00:48:50]Their huge, powerful megaids roam the land alongside smaller cartarodonttosaurs.

[00:48:57]So, the predator dynamic was different, and all of this just shows how unique the ecosystem in Victoria was back then.

[00:49:05]Although isolated dinosaur bones have been found in Western and South Australia, most of the fossils come from the eastern part of the country, like Queensland. And there, researchers dug up something really, really rare, a wellpreserved dinosaur skull. The study shows that this bone belonged to the fourth discovered specimen of Titanosaur. This group includes those massive long necked dinosaurs. They look like the bronchiosaurus, but some of them were even bigger, reaching 120 ft long.

[00:49:37]The skull discovered in 2018 belongs to this guy whose pronunciation is above my pay grade. And the research points out that it roamed the earth around 98 million years ago.

[00:49:49]Thanks to this find, scientists were able to recreate for the very first time what its face might have looked like.

[00:49:56]Probably after checking out the illustration, they thought, "Hey, it looks a lot like its cousin."

[00:50:02]They were talking about another species of titanosaur, this other unpronouncable guy. And guess where they used to live?

[00:50:10]Yep, in Argentina. So this research also supports the theory that dinosaurs crossed between South America and Australia during the mid Cretaceous period. Now this wasn't the only secret buried in Queensland though. In 2024, researchers working there discovered the fossilized remains of a new species of terasaur about 100 million years old.

[00:50:34]These creatures were the first vertebrates that could actually fly existing alongside dinosaurs. They were massive, powerful predators with wingspans of up to 36 ft. But these remains belong to a new species within the terasaur group which they have named kunamata or something similar. Compared to their cousins, they were on the smaller side with a wingspan of about 15 ft. Still, that's bigger than a snowy albatross, the largest flying bird we have today. This species of terasaurus were terrifying beasts flying over the ocean to hunt for prey.

[00:51:12]Once they spotted their victim, they'd snap open their 60 cm jaws filled with sharp spike-like teeth. And well, I guess there was no escaping that.

[00:51:22]The last incredible discovery we're talking about today also comes from Queensland. For over 20 years, students walked past a plain looking rock at Bilawa State High School, completely unaware that it held 66 dinosaur footprints, and they date back about 200 million years. These prints were made by a group of these Latin named guys. They were small dinosaurs with three toes on each foot, and it seems like they were all over Queensland around that early Jurassic period. The rock they found at the school worked like a snapshot, giving us a better idea of what these dinosaurs were like and how they behaved.

[00:52:02]After taking a closer look, researchers found that the footprints came from 47 individual dinosaurs. This group was probably walking along or maybe crossing a waterway when their footprints got marked in the white clay. And oh, the study also discovered that they were likely moving at less than 4 mph at the time. So, we only discovered those marks in Australia. But fossils of the same species found in other countries showed that they had these long legs, a big chunky body, short arms, and this tiny head with a beak. But honestly, they don't sound as scary when you realize they only ate plants.