Fossil sea monster's bite makes T-Rex look feeble

Fossil sea monster's bite makes T-Rex look feeble

A giant fossil sea monster found in the Arctic and known as "Predator X" had a bite that would make T-Rex look feeble, scientists said Monday.

The 50 ft (15 meter) long Jurassic era marine reptile had a crushing 33,000 lbs (15 tonnes) per square inch bite force, the Natural History Museum of Oslo University said of the new find on the Norwegian Arctic archipelago of Svalbard.

"With a skull that's more than 10 feet long you'd expect the bite to be powerful but this is off the scale," said Joern Hurum, an associate professor of vertebrate paleontology at the museum who led the international excavation in 2008.

"It's much more powerful than T-Rex," he said of the pliosaur reptile that would have been a top marine predator. Tyrannosaurus Rex was a top land carnivore among dinosaurs.

The scientists reconstructed the predator's head and estimated the force by comparing it with the similarly-shaped jaws of alligators in a park in Florida.

"The calculation is one of the largest bite forces ever calculated for any creature," the Museum said of the bite, estimated with the help of evolutionary biologist Greg Erickson from Florida State University.

Gee I'm glad I wasn't swimming around in the oceans back then. Apparently this thing could crush a Hummer, not that you'd be driving one around in the ocean 147 million years ago.

No doubt fodder for a thriller hollywood movie one day starring Sam Neil.

GODZILLA!!!!! lol That is pretty amazing stuff. I wonder why everything shrunk. Did something in evolution stunt our growth?

reply to post by DaMod


I heard one reason everything was so big back then was the atmosphere (and presumably the oceans) had considerably more oxygen, that's why you could have Albatross sized dragon flies and such they were able to get more energy from more efficient respiration.

Of course the other reason is it seems that smaller animals come through extinction events, after all you can have much greater number of smaller animals living in the same area living off the same food source etc.

So if it would have stayed like that the average human could be 25 ft tall. Darn the luck.

Allegedly there is an on going hunt for such teeth in Southeast Alaska right now. Everything is hush hush as they don't wan't too many beach combers to hit the area that these fossils have been found. From the rumors I've heard it sounds similar.

Who wouldn't want a foot long fossil tooth to scare the kiddies with before bed?

The 50 ft (15 meter) long Jurassic era marine reptile had a crushing 33,000 lbs

Darn!.. That thing could've crushed a car with it's bite .. screw the T-Rex.. here you got a real monster.. I wonder if there is any relation here to the Loch-Ness monster..

Peace

Forget swimming I wouldnt even go on a cruise with that thing around in the waters. Hell the only sea vessel i'd feel safe in if prehistoric predators still roamed the ocean is a battleship.

Wow that thing sounds incredible!!!
I would love to see one of those things in action....Obviously not in person, but just imagining the violence of one of those things attacking...so cool!
Hopefully they'll render this thing in 3D on one of those Discovery shows so we can see just how viscious it may have been

Have always been fascinated by the megalodon and other huge prehistoric creatures.. Need a simulation fight between them both. Would be great! Nice find!

[edit on 17-3-2009 by lighter78]

The reason for evolutionary shrinking is simply that we needed space and didnt have an available food source.

Something this large in the cold would most likely not be a fast and vicious predator, but more of a slow moving predator that only needs to barely move to eat something. I would love to see the full fossil of this thing

Originally posted by DaMod
So if it would have stayed like that the average human could be 25 ft tall. Darn the luck.

Well we have a number of 'giants' in just the last few centuries that were between nine and ten feet tall so presuming that atmospheric density and oxygen levels played a part that might not be as much of a stretch as some would have you believe. If you do abit of searching online ( i would rather not advertise specific sites) you will find some rather interesting pictures of supposedly human fossils that indicates sizes of up to 40 feet; wouldn't be hard to build the pyramids that way.

Either way those who believe the historic record as laid out in the bible should have no problem with a world inhabitated with very, very large 'people'.

Stellar

reply to post by mpriebe81


And here comes the show.

The two-hour special PREDATOR X premieres on HISTORY(TM) on Sunday, March 29 at 8pm ET/PT.

PREDATOR X follows Jorn Hurum and his team of paleontologists every step of the way, from field work through cutting edge research of this amazing dinosaur-age reptile - one of the most incredible Jurassic ocean discoveries in modern history.

I'm recording this for sure.

thank you for the info will tune in to watch.

33,000 PSI!

HOLY WAH!

I can't even envision that much pressure.

My Cetaphobia pretty much encompasses anything 1) Big 2) Living in the water

So this made me really, really unhappy!

reply to post by Shere Khaan
ok, how come I can't post anonymously anymore? What gives?

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/da5ae2d62498.jpg[/atsimg]

Originally posted by Absum!
reply to post by mpriebe81

 

And here comes the show.

The two-hour special PREDATOR X premieres on HISTORY(TM) on Sunday, March 29 at 8pm ET/PT.

PREDATOR X follows Jorn Hurum and his team of paleontologists every step of the way, from field work through cutting edge research of this amazing dinosaur-age reptile - one of the most incredible Jurassic ocean discoveries in modern history.

I'm recording this for sure.

Just a reminder this is on tonight 7pm central on the history channel.
To those interested!