Jump to content

What were the largest animals to survive the KT extinction?


aplomado

Recommended Posts

10 minutes ago, aplomado said:

What were the largest animals to survive the KT extinction?

I think you have to include crocodilians and sharks in that list

  • I found this Informative 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Single mushroom/fungus colonies can cover several sqare miles. Per Wikipedia, a colony in Oregon covers 3.4 square miles.

 

Edit: I see that you asked for animals. Fungi are related to but are not animals. 

My goal is to leave no stone or fossil unturned.   

See my Arizona Paleontology Guide    link  The best single resource for Arizona paleontology anywhere.       

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 4/1/2019 at 9:42 AM, Troodon said:

I think you have to include crocodilians and sharks in that list

 

Hi Troodon,

 

Yes, early in the Paleocene the largest sharks would have been Palaeocarcharodon and Sphenodus.  From what I've seen they had the largest teeth so I assume they were at least among the largest sharks.  It's hard to give a size range for an extinct genus with no modern relatives and with only teeth to go by but those two genera were probably in the 10-12 foot range at least in total body length.  Oddly, Sphenodus survived the mass extinction but it disappears from the fossil record by the middle of the Paleocene.  A possible rival would have been the hexanchid, Notodanodon.  I've seen some Cretalamna teeth from that time that were rather large for the genus.  I haven't seen any bony fish remains of anything that would have been at least five feet long.

 

Yes, there were some large crocodilians during that time in freshwater and marine environments.  There were also more terrestrial crocs though those don't appear to have been very common.

 

Early in the Paleocene mammals were no larger than maybe beaver-size.  I've seen only tiny teeth of primates and multituberculates (and other extinct groups) that would have been from individuals smaller than that.  Within 5-8 million years there were bear-sized carnivorous mammals and cow-sized herbivorous forms.

 

Jess

  • I found this Informative 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, siteseer said:

 

Hi Troodon,

 

Yes, early in the Paleocene the largest sharks would have been Palaeocarcharodon and Sphenodus.  From what I've seen they had the largest teeth so I assume they were at least among the largest sharks.  It's hard to give a size range for an extinct genus with no modern relatives and with only teeth to go by but those two genera were probably in the 10-12 foot range at least in total body length.  Oddly, Sphenodus survived the mass extinction but it disappears from the fossil record by the middle of the Paleocene.  A possible rival would have been the hexanchid, Notodanodon.  I've seen some Cretalamna teeth from that time that were rather large for the genus.  I haven't seen any bony fish remains of anything that would have been at least five feet long.

 

Yes, there were some large crocodilians during that time in freshwater and marine environments.  There were also more terrestrial crocs though those don't appear to have been very common.

 

Jess

Dont forget the Otodus lineage.  Pretty barren place in the early days..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How about giant squid? There was Tusoteuthis in the Cretaceous and several type today. No idea if they were around immediately after the Cretaceous.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Al Dente said:

How about giant squid? There was Tusoteuthis in the Cretaceous and several type today. No idea if they were around immediately after the Cretaceous.

Yes they became the dominant cephalopod and came through.  Not sure sure what species and size survived.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 4/4/2019 at 4:02 PM, Troodon said:

Dont forget the Otodus lineage.  Pretty barren place in the early days..

 

I'm not sure Otodus was present in the Early Paleocene though I think I have a tooth that looks like a Cretalamna but seems to lean more toward Otodus.  I'll try to dig it out and get a couple of shots of it.  It might have been present in the Early Paleocene of Russia.

 

Jess

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1-4-2019 at 6:42 PM, Troodon said:

I think you have to include crocodilians and sharks in that list

And turtles 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, Natalie81 said:

And turtles 

 

Yes, sea turtles survived but I don't know how big they were in the Early Paleocene.  A researcher from that Hornerstown project might have an idea.  It's possible one of the largest animals was a sea turtle.

  • I found this Informative 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

The oldest Otodus I have seen thus far are of NP3 age (O. obliquus group). I suspect Notidanodon was the largest elasmobranch crossing the boundary. Mid-Danian otodontids include several taxa that were probably in the 4-5m range but our knowledge about well dated material of larger sharks from the NP1-2 interval is very poor. Maastricthian otodontids in mid-palaeolatitudes were much smaller than mid-Danian ones.

  • I found this Informative 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Unfortunately, the best we can do is speculate, since the fossil record is vastly incomplete, and there were probably many species that lived and survived whose remains were never fossilized for various reasons, one being the environmental niche they occupied. For instance if the species lived at depths of 1,000 feet and never came shallower, how would we know.

 

 

Mark.

 

Fossil hunting is easy -- they don't run away when you shoot at them!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 4/29/2019 at 5:15 PM, Mark Kmiecik said:

Unfortunately, the best we can do is speculate, since the fossil record is vastly incomplete, and there were probably many species that lived and survived whose remains were never fossilized for various reasons, one being the environmental niche they occupied. For instance if the species lived at depths of 1,000 feet and never came shallower, how would we know.

 

 

Fossils found at Fakse, Denmark come from an Early Paleocene deepwater environment perhaps as deep as 1000 feet.

 

It's true the fossil record is quite incomplete especially for the Early Paleocene but we have a few windows to life on land and at sea even for that time.

  • I found this Informative 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, siteseer said:

 

 

Fossils found at Fakse, Denmark come from an Early Paleocene deepwater environment perhaps as deep as 1000 feet.

 

It's true the fossil record is quite incomplete especially for the Early Paleocene but we have a few windows to life on land and at sea even for that time.

Man is only aware of about 15% of extant species. What percent of extinct species would you guess we have discovered? I would guess it's less than 5%.

 

 

Mark.

 

Fossil hunting is easy -- they don't run away when you shoot at them!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Mark Kmiecik said:

Man is only aware of about 15% of extant species. What percent of extinct species would you guess we have discovered? I would guess it's less than 5%.

Less than 1%. Much less.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...