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Extinct Animal Questions
Topic Started: Nov 26 2013, 10:24 PM (193,432 Views)
Incinerox
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Āeksiot Zaldrīzoti

Shonisaurus and Shastasaurus are your most likely candidates.

POSSIBLY larger mosasaurs. You also have things like Archelon and Protostega as well which, if they were like leatherbacks in lifestyle, coulda gone fairly deep. MAYBE some of the larger pliosaur/plesiosaur species as well. There's also prehistoric relatives of Sperm Whales to consider.

Deep diving animals tend to be on the larger side of things.
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Cheshire Litten
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The Eyes that follow you in the Alolan forests

joe99
Jan 7 2015, 09:39 PM
can anyone help me find a extinct deep diving marine animal I have been wondering that if there are any extinct animals that can dive as deep as sperm whales and leatherback turtles
TEMNODONTOSAURUS

Temnodontosaurus is one of the oldest and largest ichthyosaurs known to science,‭ ‬and while there are a few species associated with the genus,‭ ‬the most obvious differences between these are the size and proportions of the jaws.‭ ‬Temnodontosaurus fossils have been so well preserved that they reveal stomach contents of ammonites and cephalopods like squid.‭ ‬Juvenile specimens have also been reported inside Temnodontosaurus remains,‭ ‬but in a position that suggests they were waiting to be born rather than being digested.‭ ‬Live birth in ichthyosaurs like Temnodontosaurus has long been suspected as their fusiform bodies that are so much like fish would make it impossible for them to climb onto land.‭ ‬Like most large ichthyosaurs,‭ ‬Temnodontosaurus is thought to have been a marine reptile of deep water,‭ ‬mostly rising to the surface just to breathe in fresh air.
Temnodontosaurus had large eyes that were roughly twenty centimetres across.‭ ‬These large eyes would have enabled Temnodontosaurus to see better when in deep water where most of the above sunlight could not penetrate.‭ ‬The large eyes providing a greater catch area for the little available light would allow Temnodontosaurus to distinguish ammonite forms against the dim oceanic backdrop.‭ ‬Aside from ammonites found inside Temnodontosaurus fossils,‭ ‬further support for this hunting behaviour comes from study of the teeth which reveals that they had robust roots so that they could withstand the stresses of cracking shells without breaking off.‭

TUSOTEUTHIS

tusoteuthis is a surprisingly little known Mesozoic animal,‭ ‬even though it is potentially one of the largest squids to ever swim in the ocean.‭ ‬Unfortunately the only preserved remains of Tusoteuthis currently known are of the gladius‭ (‬sometimes called a‭ ‘‬pen‭’)‬.‭ ‬The gladius is essentially an internal shell that is a feature also seen in modern day squid genera that we can see swimming in the oceans.‭
Early comparisons of the gladius of Tusoteuthis saw it being compared to the gladius of Architeuthis,‭ ‬more popularly known as the giant squid.‭ ‬From this Tusoteuthis was estimated to have had a comparable mantle‭ (‬main body‭) ‬length to Architeuthis.‭ ‬Adding on the head,‭ ‬the arms and the feeding tentacles at full extension,‭ ‬the total length of Tusoteuthis was estimated at around eleven meters,‭ ‬a bit shorter than a‭ ‬very‭ ‬large specimen of the giant squid that we know today,‭ ‬and also smaller than Mesonychoteuthis,‭ ‬better known as the‭ ‬colossal squid.
However the interpretation of Tusoteuthis as being similar to Architeuthis has now been questioned with comparisons to Vampyroteuthis‭ (‬better known as the vampire squid‭) ‬now appearing.‭ ‬This is because the gladius of Tusoteuthis is actually more like the gladius of Vampyroteuthis in its form.‭ ‬If this is correct,‭ ‬and if Tusoteuthis had similar body proportions to Vampyroteuthis,‭ ‬then it certainly would not have been eleven meters long,‭ ‬but possibly around six meters with a much stockier body than Architeuthis.

OPTHALMOSAURUS

The large number of remains relating to Ophthalmosaurus has not only indicated that it was a common ichthyosaur of the late Jurassic,‭ ‬but they have formed the basis to a lot of research about ichthyosaurs in general.‭ ‬Perhaps one of the most important areas is that concerning live birth in marine reptiles,‭ ‬something which has been proven in other ichthyosaur genera such as Platypterygius,‭ ‬but in Ophthalmosaurus is proved by the total discovery of over fifty different pregnant females.‭ ‬Further to this it seems that Ophthalmosaurus at least gave birth to multiple young at the time with numbers of pups inside a mother’s body being anything between two and eleven.‭ ‬As such it is very likely that other genera of ichthyosaurs also gave birth to litters of several individual pups.

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Alterbean7
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This is kind of a dumb question, but how big was Carcharodon megalodon exactly? A lot of resources say 50-60 feet but is that still considered true?
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Taurotragus
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I've heard that's exaggerated. What I heard stated it was more like 30-40 feet long.
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Jules
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Mihi est imperare orbi universo

And it's now renamed Carcharocles megalodon as far as I'm aware.
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CyborgIguana
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I think that's still debatable though, similar to the Megalania/Varanus debate.
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Jules
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Mihi est imperare orbi universo

It was only a (relatively) distant relative of the Great White IIRC.
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CyborgIguana
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Again, I don't think that's been proven conclusively. I'm not trying to argue your point, I agree it's probably a different genus, but it's still being debated IIRC.

Either way it was still basically a giant great white in ecological terms.
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Taurotragus
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Could titanosaurs "neck" with each other like giraffes? If not what was their way of fighting for a mate?
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CyborgIguana
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That's one of those things that can't easily be extrapolated based on fossil evidence alone.
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Incinerox
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Diabloceratops
Jan 10 2015, 02:29 PM
Could titanosaurs "neck" with each other like giraffes? If not what was their way of fighting for a mate?
They could not "neck" like giraffes. Giraffe skulls are EXTREMELY robust. Sauropod heads, on the other hand, were as light as they could possibly be.

What they DID, no one knows.
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CyborgIguana
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It's important to remember that we still know next to nothing about dinosaur courtship behaviour.
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babehunter1324
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Maybe they used their generally long and flexible tails to fight... Impossible to know for sure.
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Incinerox
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CyborgIguana
Jan 10 2015, 03:15 PM
It's important to remember that we still know next to nothing about dinosaur courtship behaviour.
We vaguely understand it for ceratopsians, hadrosaurs and oviraptorosaurs.

Vaguely...
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DinoBear
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Alterbean7
Jan 10 2015, 01:10 PM
This is kind of a dumb question, but how big was Carcharodon megalodon exactly? A lot of resources say 50-60 feet but is that still considered true?
C. megalodon could reach 60 feet, although proportions may end up changing this up or down a few feet. Also, IIRC there's some evidence for megs being evolved from Otodus based on transitional teeth.
Edited by DinoBear, Jan 10 2015, 06:13 PM.
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