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| The earliest ancient sea monsters Part 2 | |||||||||||||
| Perhaps the biggest and scariest animal of all time was the Liopleurodon. Its 25 m long, 150 ton body would have cruised through the Jurassic oceans 155 to 160 MYA. It was a reptile and therefore had to come up to the surface to breathe. It was propelled by 4 flippers and so was probably a good swimmer. It was carniverous and had few, if any predators. It was related to plesiosaurs ("Loch Ness monsters"). There are two types of plesiosaurs, the long necked ones and the short necked pliosaurs. The earliests plesiosaurs were long necked plesiosaurids and these lived in the Upper Triassic and lower Jurassic, around 220-175 MYA. It is thought all other plesiosaurs are descended from them. Liopleurodon was a very large pliosaur and its size has been continually debated throughout the years. Whatever size it really was is open to debate but it was a huge predator that ruled the Jurassic seas for many millions of years. The largest fish of all time was Leedsichthys, a giant pachycormid (an extinct group of bony fish). It lived in the late Jurassic Period 155 to 160 MYA. Estimates suggest that it grew to around 25 m long but no-one is sure of this as a complete backbone has never been found. It was a filter feeder feeding on plankton through filter plates and was slow moving so it would have been easy prey for smaller animals. |
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| Top left:: A Liopleurodon (right)attacking a Leedsichthys. Top right: a picture of what a Liopleurodon may have looked like. Left: a picture of what a Leedsichthys may have looked like. | |||||||||||||
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