Share your strangest prehistoric creatures!!

[Spoons]

What no mention of Chalicotherium?
 

All Chalicotheres are actually all absolutely absurd but I feel Chalicotherium is probably  the most we’ll known. 
 

Related to Horses, Chalicotheres rose to prominence during the Oligocene and Miocene throughout the Northern Hemisphere. 

 

They walked on their knuckles like an ape, or anteater. Being Herbivores they used their long arms and claws to grasp at high residing foliage, and defend themselves from the apex carnivores at the time like Hyenadon. It reminds me of a furry cross between a  modern day horse and a Therizinosaurus.

Here’s a skeletal mount of one, @Huntonia‘s suggestion makes an appearance in the background as well.

[FossilNerd]

Here is one for you @dinosaur man.

 

Therizinosaurus, or anything from the Therizinosauridae family. It is thought to be a herbivorous theropod with massive claws probably used for stripping leaves from plants. They were bipedal with fat dumpy bodies, long skinny necks, and small heads. 

 

Definitely not what you picture when you think of a theropod. 
 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Therizinosaurus

 

[Spoons]

@FossilNerd While were on the topic of long arms, Deinocheirus is also a pretty weird looking Dinosaur. 

[FossilNerd]

21 minutes ago, Spoons said:

While were on the topic of long arms, Deinocheirus is also a pretty weird looking Dinosaur.

Yep. That’s a strange one alright!

 

I just noticed you mentioned Therizinosaurus in your previous post about Chalicotherium. I started my post. Got distracted. Came back to it and saved the post before I realized you had mentioned them in the mean time.

 

Those Chalicotherium are crazy weird too! 

[Kasia]

21 hours ago, Kasia said:

Definitely Hallucigenia :)))

 

 

 

8 hours ago, grandpa said:

OK, I found an interesting one to me:

 

Hallucigenia

Instead of swimming, this creature used to roam about on the sea bed on seven pairs of stilts, giving it a very scary appearance. To add to these stilts, the creature even had spines on its back as a form of defense mechanism.

 

 

Here's an interesting site as well:  https://listverse.com/2009/10/05/15-unusual-prehistoric-creatures/

Check out #2

 

Also, see #5 on this site:  https://www.fossilera.com/blog/top-11-scariest-prehistoric-animals

 

[Bobby Rico]

8 hours ago, Spoons said:

Chalicotherium

That’s an odd ball creature for sure and new to me to. Thanks for the education.  

 

[Bobby Rico]

This is the one , we all know it but definitely ticks the I am a weirdo box. Dimetrodon and the name meaning "two measures of teeth". is an extinct genus of non-mammalian synapsids that lived during the Early Permian. The most prominent feature of Dimetrodon the  the large neural spine sail Is still a mystery. 

Here is some wonderful paintings by Zdeněk Burian  for your enjoyment.

[Wrangellian]

I should add an illustration of the Trilobozoa, since everyone else is showing pictures:

'Trilobozoa' of course means 3-lobed. What makes them so odd is that there are no critters with 3-lobed symmetry alive today, or any time since the Ediacaran, as far as I know.

Tribrachidium heraldicum fossil (Russia?):

 

My specimen of Anfesta stankovskii (Russia):

 

There's also the Proarticulata. Dickinsonia is one of those:

[RuMert]

Changyuraptor yangi

[Misha]

Vetulicoila were definitely not normal animals when you compare them to the things we see around today.

[dinosaur man]

Here’s another, the 28 million years old Paraceratherium.

[Bobby Rico]

34 minutes ago, dinosaur man said:

Here’s another, the 28 million years old Paraceratherium.

Nice I have a framed print of this cool creature in our home. 

[Spoons]

Okay, ...not to hog all the weird animals, but here is another. Uintatherium anceps.

 

Uintatherium resided in Eocene North America and China. It sports some really interesting head gear and SABER TEETH! 

 

Uintatherium was originally described by Othneill Charles Marsh. It became an integral part of the bone wars, and between Marsh and Cope, Uintatherium was described an astounding 22 separate times.  
 

Edited March 4, 2020 by Spoons
Updated to better reflect scientific accuracy, thank you @siteseer

[connorp]

4 hours ago, Misha said:

Vetulicoila were definitely not normal animals when you compare them to the things we see around today.

I love these guys. A weird mix of chordate and arthropod features, they’ve bounced around the tree of life more than most. I believe the current consensus is that they’re crown-group chordates that are related to modern tunicates.

[siteseer]

4 hours ago, dinosaur man said:

Here’s another, the 28 million years old Paraceratherium.

 

 

That's a good choice.  It was the largest land mammal that ever lived.  It wasn't a probiscidean.  It wasn't a titanothere.  It was a rhino.

 

[siteseer]

3 hours ago, Spoons said:

Okay, not to hog all the weird animals, but here is another. Uintatherium anceps.

 

Uintatherium resided in Miocene North America and China. It sports some really interesting head gear and SABER TEETH! 

 

Uintatherium was originally described by Othneill Charles Marsh. It became an integral part of the bone wars, and between Marsh and Cope, Uintatherium was described an astounding 22 separate times.  
 

 

 

Uintatheres as a group appeared in the Late Paleocene and died out in the mid-late Eocene.  The genus Uintatherium lived during the middle Eocene.

 

 

 

[siteseer]

16 hours ago, Spoons said:

What no mention of Chalicotherium?
 

All Chalicotheres are actually all absolutely absurd but I feel Chalicotherium is probably  the most we’ll known. 
 

Related to Horses, Chalicotheres rose to prominence during the Oligocene and Miocene throughout the Northern Hemisphere. 

 

They walked on their knuckles like an ape, or anteater. Being Herbivores they used their long arms and claws to grasp at high residing foliage, and defend themselves from the apex carnivores at the time like Hyenadon. It reminds me of a furry cross between a  modern day horse and a Therizinosaurus.

Here’s a skeletal mount of one, @Huntonia‘s suggestion makes an appearance in the background as well.

 

 

Yeah, chalicotheres are weird.  They survived into the Pleistocene of Africa after dying out elsewhere.  Some have even speculated that chalicotheres lived into modern times in Africa  based on sightings of a strange large mammal with a bear-like body and horse-like head.

 

 

[Spoons]

1 hour ago, siteseer said:

 

 

Uintatheres as a group appeared in the Late Paleocene and died out in the mid-late Eocene.  The genus Uintatherium lived during the middle Eocene.

 

 

 

Thank you for the correction.

 

1 hour ago, siteseer said:

 

 

Yeah, chalicotheres are weird.  They survived into the Pleistocene of Africa after dying out elsewhere.  Some have even speculated that chalicotheres lived into modern times in Africa  based on sightings of a strange large mammal with a bear-like body and horse-like head.

 

 

I had no idea about this. I’ll have to do some more reading about the subject

[Ash]

12 hours ago, siteseer said:

 

 

Yeah, chalicotheres are weird.  They survived into the Pleistocene of Africa after dying out elsewhere.  Some have even speculated that chalicotheres lived into modern times in Africa  based on sightings of a strange large mammal with a bear-like body and horse-like head.

 

 

 

 

Oh that would be incredible! I always love when a group clings on a little longer in one spot than everywhere else.

[ReptileTooth]

In my opininion one of the most weird critter is the Palaeospondylus gunni:

https://www.thefossilforum.com/uploads/monthly_2017_01/Fossil_skeleton_Palaeospondylus_Woodward.png.e16ef276ce2b34c30871e01234481f47.png

[Darktooth]

On 3/2/2020 at 8:45 PM, Spoons said:

 

I would pay good money to see that pole dance! 

[Bobby Rico]

How about this oddball a Synthetoceras tricornatus is a large, extinct protoceratid, endemic to North America during the Late Miocene. 

[FossilNerd]

1 hour ago, Bobby Rico said:

How about this oddball a Synthetoceras tricornatus is a large, extinct protoceratid, endemic to North America during the Late Miocene.

It’s Randall the Horned Nose Reindeer! Rudolf’s second cousin, twice removed, on his mother’s side. 

[Bobby Rico]

49 minutes ago, FossilNerd said:

It’s Randall the Horned Nose Reindeer! Rudolf’s second cousin, twice removed, on his mother’s side. 

You could wrap a set of Christmas lights around it’s nose antler and he is good to go. 

[Abyss]

Beautiful & strange creatures all of you have come up with, though I suppose time knows no limits.

Even with what we know of today creatures may be considered strange, only we're used to them since they're not extinct yet so we don't consider them that strange.