Top Ten: Extinct Sea Monsters (Part 1 of 5)

Since ya'll kinda get gypped on Wednesdays with the "What Is It?" challenge, I decided that, when I do do the challenge, I will also include a "Top Ten" list.  I mean, come on now, who doesn't like lists?  I know some of my friends would be absolutely and completely lost without them!  So for today's "Top Ten," we are going to take a look at some of the world's most amazing, extinct sea monsters.  This is also up for debate, so if you disagree, just give me a holler!  Also, they are not in any particular order, I just kind of threw them all in there!  So without further ado, here we go, with our "Top Ten:  Extinct Sea Monsters!"

1.  Megalodon - This gigantic relative of the extant great white shark was thought to be simply massive: perhaps even sixty feet in length!  Living the world over, Megalodon stalked the seas during the Miocene and Pliocene Epochs, and only died out during the current Pleistocene Epoch, around two million years ago.  It is thought that Megalodon evolved to such gigantic proportions in order to be able to attack the massive whales that had started to evolve in the cooler seas of the Miocene and Pliocene.  Remember now: if it's a shark, then it's a fish!

A tooth fragment from Megalodon at this excellent restaurant called The Crab Shack on Tybee Island off of the coast of Savannah, Georgia. 

2.  Basilosaurus - A massive, predatory whale (and, therefore, a mammal) that cruised the seas in the Late Eocene Epoch, 40 to 34 MYA, fossil discoveries of this massive animal were reportedly so common in the southern United States during the early 19th century, that bones of Basilosaurus would be used as furniture!  It was first discovered in Louisiana, and is the state fossil of both Mississippi and Alabama.  Basilosaurus has also been found in Egypt and Pakistan.  At around sixty feet in length, the same estimated length of Megalodon, Basilosaurus is thought to have been the biggest creature alive at the time.

COMING UP:

3.  Liopleurodon
4.  Shonisaurus
5. Elasmosaurus
6.  Dunkleosteus
7.  Archelon
8.  Leedsichthys
9.  Tanystropheus
10. Tylosaurus

This post is part of the "Top Ten: Extinct Sea Monsters" series.  For the rest of the posts in this series, click HERE. 

What Is It? The Weekly Challenge #2 Answer

 Hello again!  Thank you to our guessers for this week: surprisingly, one of you got it exactly right!  Congratulations to Kristie C., who guessed this weeks mystery animal 100% correct!  The correct animal was Pakicetus, an ancient ancestor of the cetaceans, or the whales, dolphins and porpoises.  Around 53 MYA, Pakicetus lived in a world that was gradually becoming what we see today.  At this time, what we now know as India was its own special island continent, moving steadily northwards until, eventually, India crashed into Asia.  This crash resulted in the largest mountains we have today, the Himalayas. 

However, 53 MYA, during the Eocene Epoch, India hadn't quite reached Asia, a small sea separating the two, the remains of the vast Tethys Ocean.  The Tethys Sea was high in saline, which is incredibly good for life.  Microscopic organisms like plankton flourished, sending reverberations up the food chain, all of the way to the fish, which exploded in numbers as well.  And on the shore of this Tethys Sea, in what today is Pakistan, stood Pakicetus. 

As Pakicetus watched the gread abundnace of fish in the waters, he began to take short fishing trips into the water.  Over millennia, as Pakicetus took more and more fishing trips, of longer and longer duration, adaptations that proved beneficial for hunting fish in the water occurred, like a more streamlined shape, most likely webbed feet, and nostrils placed further back on the head.  Over a few million years, Pakicetus evolved into another ancient whale, called Ambulocetus.

Check back in a few hours for your next "What Is It?" challenge?  I promise you, after the last two, this one should seem like a piece of cake!  See you all then!