The largest ancient fish in the world. The oldest fish

Today, the oceans are home to many scary creatures - man-eating sharks, huge squids, and mysterious deep-sea fish. But all the same, the creatures found in the depths of the waters did not come close in their parameters to those giant creatures that lived in the seas of the past.

Then you could meet huge sea lizards, monster sharks and even dangerous killer whales. If today marine life appears to us mainly as a source of food, then in those days man himself would have become food. Let's talk below about the 10 most terrible monsters that lived in the oceans in prehistoric times.

This creature is obviously the most famous on the list. Its name itself translates as “big tooth”. Many people would have a hard time even imagining a fossil shark the size of a school bus. Popular science sources help, like the Discovery Channel, which with the help of computer technology brought the monster to life. The shark was 22 meters long and weighed about 50 tons. It was one of the largest predators throughout the existence of the Earth. The bite force per 1 square cm was up to 30 tons. Although it seems that such a creature lived during the age of dinosaurs, megalodons lived on the planet 25-1.5 million years ago. Consequently, giant sharks missed the last dinosaurs by about 40 million years. By the way, it is quite possible that megalodons managed to meet the first ancestors of people. Megalodons lived in warm oceans, hunting whales. But after the start of the ice age in the Pliocene, currents and ocean temperatures changed. Under the new conditions, the giant predators could no longer exist. Today, their closest relatives are considered to be white sharks.

These animals were typical pliosaurs, representatives of the Jurassic period. They were first described from a single tooth found in France in 1873. At the end of the same century, a skeleton was also found. These were creatures from 6 to 25 meters long, with a large narrow head. Scientists believe that it could reach a length of 4 meters! The huge teeth reached half a meter. The creature swam with the help of huge flippers, rising to the surface for air. It could dive for a long time and deeply. Scientists based on the remains modeled the body of Liopreurodon. It turned out that he was not so much fast as very flexible. The sea dweller made quick jerks, attacking prey. There is no doubt that Liopreurodons were viviparous - such sizes simply did not give them the opportunity to crawl ashore to lay eggs.

Despite its unusual appearance, this creature is not a reptile at all. This is a whale, and by no means the scariest on our list. Basilosaurs are the predatory ancestors of modern whales. They reached 21 meters in length and lived on the planet 45-36 million years ago. In those days, basilosaurs inhabited all the warm seas of the planet, being one of the largest predators. The whale actually looked more like a giant snake, as it had a long, sinuous body. Its victims were large creatures, including dorudons. Today, just the fantasy of swimming in the ocean, where the alligator-snake-whale creature lives, can kill interest in water procedures for a long time. The physical characteristics of basilosaurs suggest that they lacked the cognitive abilities of modern whales. They did not have echolocation, and practically did not dive to great depths. They also had virtually no social skills; the whales were loners. As a result, the monster was quite primitive and could not pursue its victim if it got out onto land.

The name of this creature doesn't sound too scary. Meanwhile, it was one of the largest arthropods of all time. Cancer scorpions lived 460-250 million years ago, reaching a length of 2.5 meters. Only their claw was up to half a meter long. In those days, the oxygen level in the atmosphere was higher, which was the reason for the appearance of giant cockroaches and scorpions. Scorpio remained a sea dweller, although many of its relatives in those days began to explore land. These creatures went extinct before the dinosaurs; now it is not even clear whether they were truly poisonous. However, the structure of their tail resembles the structure of the same part of the body in scorpions, which makes it possible to assume the attacking function of the tail.

These animals belong to the duck-billed dinosaurs. They lived on the borders of water and land. Maiasaurs could jump into the water to escape predators. These creatures reached 7-9 meters in length, their weight was about 2-3 tons. Maiasaurs lived 80-73 million years ago. Using a flat, wide, toothless beak, the animals plucked vegetation or collected algae. Maiasaura's neck consists of many vertebrae, implying its flexibility. There was a small ridge on the skull. The hind legs were strong, supporting the weight of the body. Mayasaurs could defend themselves with the help of their powerful tail. The animals laid eggs, and babies about half a meter in length emerged from the eggs. Maiasaurs lived in herds, as evidenced by the large number of skeletons found next to each other.

This creature can be called a real carnivorous tank. The ferocious predator reached a length of 10 meters, and its body was covered with plates that acted as armor. There is an explanation for this - dunkleosteus hunted both their fellows and other predators. They did not have bones in the usual sense; their role was played by sharp bony ridges, like those of a turtle. But the bite force was 8,000 pounds per square inch, which is comparable to a crocodile bite. The predator's skull was equipped with powerful muscles, which made it possible to pull food inside like a vacuum cleaner in a fraction of a second. The advantage of dunkleosteus was that the jaws were powerful and fast. The hunter opened his deadly jaws at high speed, capturing his prey with tremendous force. Almost none of the inhabitants of the ocean at that time had a chance to escape. Dunkleosteus was the most dangerous monster in the ocean at that time. These armored fish lived 415-360 million years ago.

This pliosaur is one of the most famous to the public and the largest in this family. For a long time there was debate about the true size of this inhabitant of the depths. As a result, scientists proved that Kronosaurus reached a length of 10 meters. Moreover, only the skull reached 3 meters. The massive mouth contained a profusion of teeth, up to 11 inches long. Kronosaurus became famous as the “king of the ancient seas” and even the “T-rex of the ocean.” It is no coincidence that the name of the predator was given in honor of Kronos, the king of the Greek titans. Kronosaurus lived in the southern polar seas, which could have been quite cold in those days. For the first time, the remains of an animal were found in Australia. The animal's flippers are somewhat reminiscent of a turtle's. Perhaps kronosaurs crawled ashore to lay their eggs. You can be sure that no one dug their nests, so as not to anger the formidable predator. Kronosaurus lived about 120-100 million years ago.

The length of these sharks reached 9-12 meters. Moreover, their uniqueness lies in the possession of a dental spiral on the lower jaw. Such a formation could reach a diameter of 90 centimeters. A cross between a buzz saw and a shark, it was a real sea horror. The animal's teeth were serrated, implying it was carnivorous. It is not clear where the spiral was located - in the front of the mouth, or deeper. The last option involves a different diet, a softer one (jellyfish). The structure of the body remains unknown. But the fact that Helicoprion was a rather intelligent creature is beyond doubt. The predator was able to survive the Triassic extinction, possibly due to its habitat in the deep layers of the ocean.

This ancient predator was something between the modern killer whale and an ordinary sperm whale. In 2008, the remains of a whale were found that had been hunting other whales. Its teeth were the largest for eating of any animal. Although elephant tusks are larger, this is not what they are designed for. The diameter of the teeth was 12 centimeters, and their length was 36. The body of the ancient sperm whale was up to 17.5 meters long. Interestingly, the sperm whale lived about 13 million years ago, which means it competed in the ocean for prey with megalodon. The head of the predatory whale reached 3 meters in length, there are signs that it contained echolocation organs, like modern toothed whales. Therefore, in turbid water conditions, the leviathan could navigate effectively. The animal was named after Leviathan, the biblical sea monster, and also in honor of Herman Melville, the author of the novel Moby Dick (which featured a giant sperm whale).

This fish has reached 5 meters in diameter, and it is also poisonous. The stingray is strong enough to pull a boat with people on it. In this case, we are talking about a prehistoric super-fish, the descendants of which still lurk in the fresh and brackish waters of the Mekong River and northern Australia. No one here is surprised by two-meter stingrays weighing three centners. These fish are already several million years old, the structure of their body has allowed them to stay alive. Giant fish were able to survive even the Ice Age. Due to its size and unusual appearance, the stingray received the name “sea devil”. In the front of the body there are small eyes, behind them are gills and a toothed mouth. Interestingly, there is a sensitive area on the skin around the mouth and nose that allows the stingray to detect the electric and magnetic fields of other living creatures. This makes it much easier to find food. The freshwater predator has a terrible weapon - two powerful and sharp spikes on its tail. The largest of them acts as a harpoon, easily entering the victim and being held inside by the barbs. The force of the impact is so great that even the bottom of the boat cannot withstand it. The length of the spike reaches 38 centimeters. The second spike is smaller, it is intended for injecting poison. This substance is deadly to humans. The stingray feeds on fish, shellfish and invertebrates. Female stingrays are viviparous.

Horseshoe crabs are considered to be the most ancient animals living on Earth - aquatic chelicerates from the class merostomaceae. At the moment, four modern species of these arthropods are known. They live in the shallow waters of the tropical seas of Southeast Asia and the Atlantic coast of North America. Horseshoe crabs appeared on our planet approximately 450 million years ago.

Neopilin cephalopods originated on Earth 355-400 million years ago. They live in the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic oceans at depths from 1800 to 6500 meters. These creatures were discovered only in 1957.

Coelacanths are the only living genus of lobe-finned fish and are now considered living fossils. Now there are only two species of coelacanths - one lives off the eastern and southern coasts of Africa, and the second was first described only in 1997-1999. near the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia.

Interestingly, at the moment, scientists do not know what a young coelacanth looks like and where young fish live for the first few years of their lives - not a single young individual was identified during dives. It is believed that coelacanths originated on Earth 300-400 million years ago.

Cockroaches appeared on our planet about 320 million years ago and have been actively spreading since then - scientists currently know more than 200 genera and 4,500 species.

The remains of cockroaches are, along with the remains of cockroach crickets, the most numerous traces of insects in Paleozoic deposits.

The oldest surviving large predator to this day is the crocodile. However, it is considered the only surviving species of crurotarsians - a group that also included a number of dinosaurs and pterosaurs. It is believed that crocodiles appeared on Earth approximately 250 million years ago.

Crocodiles are common in all tropical countries, living in a variety of fresh water bodies; Relatively few species are tolerant of salt water and are found in coastal seas (Nile crocodile, combed crocodile, African narrow-snouted crocodile).

The first crocodiles lived mainly on land and only later moved on to life in the water. All modern crocodiles are adapted to a semi-aquatic lifestyle - living in water, they, however, lay eggs on land.

Small crustaceans of the class of branchiopods appeared on Earth 220-230 million years ago, when dinosaurs still lived on the planet. Shields are small creatures and are rarely longer than 12 cm, however, due to a unique survival system, they managed to survive.

The fact is that shieldfish live in stagnant water of temporary fresh reservoirs, due to which they are freed from natural enemies and in their niche they are at the top of the ecological pyramid.

Hatteria, a species of reptile, is the only modern representative of the ancient order of beaked animals. They live only on a few islands in New Zealand, despite the fact that tuataria have already become extinct on the North and South Islands.

These reptiles grow up to 50 years, and the average life expectancy is 100 years. It is believed that they originated on the planet 220 million years ago, and now tuataria are included in the IUCN Red List and have the conservation status of a vulnerable species.

The Nephila spider is not only considered the oldest on the planet - scientists believe that the genus originated about 165 million years ago - but it is also the largest web-weaving spider. These spiders live in Australia, Asia, Africa, America and the island of Madagascar.

Interestingly, fishermen collect Nephila webs, form them into a ball, which they then throw into the water to catch fish.

Ants have inhabited our planet for 130 million years - they are believed to have evolved from vespoid wasps in the mid-Cretaceous period. Today, there are more than 12,000 species of these insects around the world, most of which are distributed in the tropics. About 300 species of ants live in Russia.

Australian echidnas, which are on a par with platypuses, have inhabited Australia, the islands of New Guinea and Tasmania for 110 million years and their appearance has not undergone any changes during this time. Externally, echidnas resemble a porcupine - they are also covered with coarse hair and have quills.

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Earth is an amazing planet. There is a countless variety of life forms on it, both relatively recent and very ancient. Here is a list of the oldest living things on Earth that will definitely make you feel young.

10. Martialis heureka

Age: 100-120 million years

This rare Amazonian animal has been dubbed the "ant from Mars" because it looks and behaves completely differently than any other species of ant. This is one of the oldest animals on Earth, according to various estimates, it appeared from 100 to 120 million years ago.

Martialis heureka live in the soil and do not have eyes, but nature has endowed them with numerous hair-like projections on the body. They help these strange ants sense vibrations and pressure changes in the surrounding soil.

9. Frilled Shark

Age: 150 million years

One of the oldest living members of the shark family. In 2007, a frilled shark was caught near Tokyo, which is very strange, because usually these predators live at a depth of 600-1000 meters. Scientists assumed that the female was sick, which is why she rose to the surface. The caught shark, despite careful care, lived only 2 days.

Special chemical and physiological adaptations allow the frilled shark, which is more like a snake or an eel, to survive at depths where not only humans, but also many marine inhabitants have no access.

8. Shchitni

Age: 200 million years

Perhaps one of the distant great-great-great (and many, many more “great-great”) great-grandfathers of these freshwater crustaceans saw a living dinosaur with his own eyes. Or the only continent at that time - Pangea.

The scutum is a very small animal, ranging from 2 to 4 millimeters in length, that can survive even in the harshest geological conditions. Scuttlefish eggs can lie dormant for several years until conditions are right for hatching. And even the cannibalism inherent in shield insects could not destroy this species.

7. Sturgeon

Age: 200 million years

These largest freshwater fish are found in North America and Eurasia and are one of the oldest species of animals belonging to the class of bony fishes.

However, due to the production of expensive black caviar, which has an exquisite taste, sturgeon fish are under threat of destruction. Over 15 years, the number of sturgeon fish in the Caspian Sea alone has decreased by 38.5 times

6. Coelacanth

Age - 360-400 million years

This ancient fish is one of the rarest and most endangered fish in the world. For a very long time, the coelacanth was thought to be an extinct species, but in recent years these fish have been discovered in the Indian Ocean.

Giant coelacanths grow up to 190 cm in length and live at a depth of about 100 meters. They have electrosensory organs that help detect the presence of prey, and the structure of the lobed fins is unique and not found in any other modern fish.

5. Horseshoe crab

Age - 230-450 million years

This strange crab, looking more like a facehugger from Aliens when turned upside down, was a contemporary of the most ancient dinosaurs. Despite its name, the horseshoe crab (aka horseshoe crab) is not a crab, but an arachnid. Its closest relatives were trilobites.

The body of the horseshoe crab reaches 60 cm in length and consists of two sections: the cephalothorax and abdomen. Both parts of the back are protected by a powerful shell, greenish-gray in color. Excellent camouflage against the background of silt. And on the tail needle there are spiny protrusions that help the horseshoe crab balance in the water during strong currents. The tail is also needed to “plow” the seabed in search of food and as a lever if the horseshoe crab suddenly capsizes. Alas, it does not always work.

This amazing creature swims funny - belly up, using its own shell as a boat.

4. Nautilus

Age - 235-500 million years

One of the last representatives of a very old group of mollusks. According to various estimates, this cephalopod appeared on Earth from 500 to 235 million years ago and is older than many species of dinosaurs. Thus, the nautilus is rightfully called a living fossil.

Its beautiful spiral shell could probably arouse the envy of modern cephalopods, deprived of such a luxurious shelter. Fortunately, this feeling is unfamiliar to them.

About 90 small tentacles, arranged in a circle around the mouth, help the nautilus to catch prey and repel attacks from enemies.

3. Medusa

Age - 505-550 million years

It is the most primitive aquatic animal (after the second most ancient animals on Earth). A jellyfish never has a headache, because it has neither a brain nor a nervous system, but it does have primitive digestive and sensory organs.

90% of a jellyfish's body is made up of water, giving it a clear, jelly-like appearance. But don’t be fooled by its apparent harmlessness. Many types of jellyfish are poisonous. And the most dangerous of them is the box jellyfish. Its venom can kill an adult human and many large animals almost as quickly as. Moreover, the victim dies within 2 to 15 minutes from severe painful shock or cardiac arrest. The box jellyfish is also known as one of the most transparent animals on planet Earth.

2. Sponges

Age - 580 million years

Who lives at the bottom of the ocean? These are sponges - one of the most primitive animals that are similar to plants.

They are nothing more than an aggregation of cells and have no internal organs or body parts. Sponges live in sea and fresh water. Some of the most famous types of sponges are corals. There are about 8 thousand species of sponges in the world. So SpongeBob, the famous cartoon character, has a huge number of living relatives with a very ancient pedigree.

1. Cyanobacteria

Age: 3.5 billion years

You've never seen this tiny bacterium, but it's one of the top 10 living organisms that have existed the longest on Earth. And it is precisely this that is one of the reasons why life on our planet became possible. Cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, are probably the first living organism to appear on Earth. It is a photosynthetic microorganism that lives in large colonies and produces oxygen as a byproduct of photosynthesis. Thanks to their activities, according to scientists, the “oxygen catastrophe” began - a change in the composition of the earth’s atmosphere. This process began about 2.4 billion years ago and caused the restructuring of the biosphere and the global Huronian glaciation.

Today, cyanobacteria are one of the main sources of oxygen in the world. And thus support the existence of all other oxygen-breathing life forms.

The world's oldest animals that are still extant when most of their counterparts have long since gone extinct are called living fossils. Studying these animals gives scientists more information about the evolution and successful survival strategies used in the animal kingdom.

Coelacanth, or coelacanth, is the only representative of lobe-finned fish. It was thought to have gone extinct about 70 million years ago. Zoologists first learned about its existence in 1938. Since then, coelacanth has become synonymous with “living fossils.”

But scientists foresaw this. Although, by and large, they had almost no hope. But, as often happens in the world of science, the search that lasted for many decades was finally crowned with success. Incredible, but true: 60 years after the first discovery off the coast of South Africa, a living relic - a real prehistoric fish that lived in the sea 300 million years ago - was caught in the net of Indonesian fishermen from the island of Sulawesi. It was a coelacanth. The discovery so excited the scientific community and the public that the popular English magazine Nature immediately recognized it as the most outstanding event of the year.

Chance, as always, helped bring him closer.

In 1997, a young married couple appeared in Sulawesi, also united by professional interests. American ichthyologist Mark Erdman and his Indonesian wife, also a marine biologist, decided to spend their honeymoon in the exotic surroundings of the northern part of Sulawesi, which differs from the southern part of this island, perhaps, only in that it lies just above the equator, therefore, in a different hemisphere. While walking one day through the market of the seaside town of Manado, full of outlandish variety, the Erdman couple purely by chance noticed an unusual large fish - an exhibition specimen, so to speak, which, accordingly, could not be bought. But it was possible to take a photo. Which the couple did successfully.

However, Mark Erdman, as a specialist, only had to take one look at the curiosity to understand that this was a rare specimen of the legendary coelacanth.

What was surprising was how the coelacanth got to Indonesia. Previously, it was believed that the range of the coelacanth extends no further than the Comoros Islands, which lie in the northern part of the Mozambique Channel - between the northern tip of Madagascar and the eastern coast of Africa. And from Comoros to Sulawesi is a good 10,000 km. Which Mark Erdman knew very well. And then he decided to engage in a private investigation with his wife, fearing for the time being to make his discovery public. Erdman could be completely understood: he wanted to collect more facts.

And the first such fact turned out to be that the coelacanth, which Sulawesi fishermen have long dubbed “raja-laut”, which means “king of the sea”, is not such a rarity in these waters - no, no, and even gets caught in fishing nets. And the fact that it has not yet caught the eye of scientists, who is to blame for this? At least not fishermen.

Be that as it may, a year later - on June 30, 1998 - another specimen of the coelacanth landed in the net of fishermen from Manado, which they set for sharks. One problem: in the cage where he was placed, he lived only for three hours, leaving behind only a memory - in the form of a photograph and description taken by Erdman, a stuffed animal and unanswered questions that added to the treasury of zoological secrets. As it happened more than once - both in 1938 and in 1952.

And then this happened. The first living coelacanth was caught at the mouth of the South African Halumna River. Or - the last representative of lobe-finned fishes, a superorder of bony fishes that appeared in the Middle Devonian period and - what is remarkable! - gave rise to terrestrial vertebrates. However, coelacanths were thought to have gone extinct 70 million years ago. But that was not the case!..

The caught individual reached more than one and a half meters in length and weighed about 60 kg. With the light hand of Professor J.L.-B. Smith, who studied the rare find inside and out, it received its scientific name: Latimeria chalumnae - in honor of the place where it was discovered. The individual had eight fins, and four of them closely resembled the legs of an amphibian in the very early stages of development. Smith and other researchers were no less surprised by the respiratory apparatus of the fish, or rather, one of its components - an organ similar to primitive, just forming lungs. Thus, obvious confirmation was obtained of the most important position of evolutionary theory, which states that life came to earth from the sea. And that the so-called lung fish were the ancestors of terrestrial vertebrates.

In addition, scientists realized that the coelacanth, caught off the east coast of South Africa, ended up in those waters, in general, by accident. The relict individual, they suggested, was most likely brought there by the Mozambique Current from the north.

The guess was confirmed sixteen years later. In 1952, another living specimen of the coelacanth was caught in the waters of Anjouan Island, part of the Comoros archipelago. Then it turned out that the Comorians have been fishing for this fish since ancient times and call it “gombessa”. And for them it is not at all a curiosity.

Thus, the range of the prehistoric lobe-finned fish resurrected from oblivion was established - the western part of the Indian Ocean, the northern entrance to the Mozambique Strait. However, these boundaries, as we already know, turned out to be conditional. Twelve years later, scientists have received factual evidence that the Comorian "Gombessa" was once seen in another ocean, off the coast of a completely different continent.

In 1964, the Belgian naturalist Maurice Steiner bought from a Spanish antiquarian a 17th-century silver medallion depicting a coelacanth, which was reproduced with amazing accuracy. But the most curious thing is that the medallion was not made in the Comoros Islands or even in Europe. Oddly enough, thousands of miles from the African and European shores - in Mexico. And this fact was confirmed for certain - through chemical analysis of silver and the establishment of a very characteristic Spanish-American method of minting and finishing jewelry, which was made precisely in the 17th century, and not just anywhere, but in the New World.

The reality of the Mexican coelacanth was confirmed in 1993. French biologist Roman E in the town of Beloxi (Mississippi), just on the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico, acquired three large dried scales, reminiscent of medium-sized flat shells. They seemed to have been extracted from the scaly integument of one of the coelacanths described in detail by Smith in 1938 and 1952.

And then there is the “raja-laut”, very similar to the individuals classified by Smith. The only thing that distinguished the “sea king” from the island of Sulawesi from his Comorian relative was the color. The Sulawesi coelacanth had a distinct brown color with yellowish spots, and not the steel-blue color of the Comorian.

And finally, according to another French cryptozoologist, Michel Raynal, the range of the “raja laut” extends much further than the Sulawesi Sea. In any case, Raynal heard more than once from Philippine fishermen about a mysterious fish, described as very similar to a coelacanth. And this is the Pacific Ocean!

We have already talked about strange, huge and very dangerous dinosaurs and others millions of years ago, but in fact, some of these animals have survived to this day. Having undergone minor changes, or without changing their appearance at all, some of these creatures have taken root well in the modern world. From the fearsome descendants of deep-sea prehistoric sharks to a species of ant that has been around for 120 million years, today we tell you about twenty-five prehistoric animals that still exist today.

25. Tadpole shrimp

The seabill, officially known as Triops longicaudatus, is a freshwater crustacean that resembles a miniature horseshoe crab. They are considered a living fossil because their basic prehistoric morphology has changed little over the past 70 million years, closely matching the bodies of their ancient ancestors who inhabited the Earth until approximately 220 million years ago.

24. Lampreys


The lamprey is a jawless fish characterized by a serrated, funnel-like suction cup mouth. Although they are well known to burrow their teeth into the flesh of other fish to suck blood, only a small number of the 38 known species actually do this. The oldest fossilized lamprey skeleton was found in South Africa and dates back to approximately 360 million years ago, but it undeniably bears striking similarities to modern specimens.

23. Sandhill crane


The sandhill crane, endemic to North America and northeastern Siberia, is a large and heavy bird, weighing up to 4.5 kilograms. A fossil skeleton more than 10 million years old found in Nebraska is believed to belong to a sandhill crane, but scientists are not sure if it is the same species. However, another sandhill crane fossil dates back to 2.5 million years ago.

22. Sturgeon


Found in rivers, lakes and coastal waters of the subtropical, temperate and subarctic zones, the sturgeon is sometimes called a "primitive fish" because its morphological characteristics remain virtually unchanged from the oldest fossil of the species found, approximately 200 million years old. Unfortunately, overfishing, pollution and other forms of habitat destruction have brought these fish to the brink of extinction, with some species already on the brink of extinction.

21. Chinese giant salamander


The Chinese giant salamander, the largest salamander and amphibian in the world, can reach a length of 180 centimeters. As a living member of the Cryptobranchidea family, which originated 170 million years ago, this unique creature is also considered a critically endangered species due to habitat loss, pollution and overharvesting, as it is considered a delicacy and used in traditional Chinese medicine.

20. Ant from Mars (Martialis heureka ant)


This species of ant was discovered in 2000 in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil. It is notable for its unusual morphology. The Mars ant, which belongs to the oldest known distinct genus that branched off from the ancestors of all other ants, is estimated to have roamed our planet for approximately 120 million years.

19. Goblin shark


The goblin shark, whose body length can reach up to 4 meters in adults, is a rare and poorly studied species of deep-sea shark. Its strange and scary appearance suggests that this creature has its origins in the prehistoric era. The first direct ancestors of the goblin shark lived on Earth 125 million years ago. Despite its frightening appearance and large size, this type of shark is practically harmless to humans.

18. Horseshoe crab


Horseshoe crabs are marine arthropods that live primarily in shallow ocean waters on soft sandy or muddy bottoms. The horseshoe crab is considered the closest relative of the legendary trilobite and is among the best-known living fossils that have remained virtually unchanged for an astonishing 450 million years.

17. Echidna


Along with the platypus, the echidna is the only surviving mammal that lays eggs. Scientific research shows that echidnas split from platypuses approximately 48 to 19 million years ago. Their common ancestor was aquatic, but echidnas adapted to life on land. Due to its very unusual appearance, the echidna was named after the "Mother of Monsters" in Greek mythology.

16. Hatteria (Tuatara)


Hatterias, endemic to New Zealand, grow up to 80 centimeters in length and are distinguished by a spiny crest along the back, especially pronounced in males. Although they look like modern reptiles and lizards, their body structure is believed to have remained unchanged for 200 million years. For this reason, the hatteria is of great interest for the study of the evolution of both lizards and snakes.

15. Frilled shark


Found at depths of 50 to 200 meters in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the frilled shark is another scary-looking marine living fossil. This species of shark belongs to one of the oldest lineages of sharks still in existence, which has been around since at least the end of the Cretaceous period (95 million years ago) and possibly even the end of the Jurassic period (150 million years ago).

14. Alligator snapping turtle


Commonly found in the waters of the southeastern United States, snapping turtles are one of two extant genera of the snapping turtle family, a prehistoric family of turtles with a centuries-old fossil history dating back to the Maastrichtian stage (72 - 66 million years ago) of the Late Cretaceous. period. Weighing up to approximately 180 kilograms, the snapping turtle is the heaviest freshwater turtle in the world.

13. Coelacanth


Endemic to the coastal waters of the Indian Ocean and Indonesia, the coelacanth is a genus of fish that includes two extant species of approximately the family Latimeria. These species were thought to be extinct until they were rediscovered in 1938, and are more closely related to lungfishes, reptiles and mammals than to common ray-finned fishes. The coelacanth is thought to have evolved into approximately its current form approximately 400 million years ago.

12. Giant freshwater stingray


The giant freshwater stingray, one of the largest freshwater fish in the world, grows to almost 2 meters in diameter and can weigh up to 600 kilograms. Its thin, oval pectoral fin disc is estimated to have evolved approximately 100 million years ago. Like most of the animals on this list, this species is also critically endangered due to overcapture for meat and aquarium display, as well as habitat degradation.

11. Nautilus


Found in the deep slopes of coral reefs in the Indian Ocean and western central Pacific Ocean, the nautilus is a pelagic mollusk. Fossils found show that this creature has lived on Earth for an incredible 500 million years, meaning it has survived several mass extinctions and major changes to the planet. But then again, this is probably the closest this species comes to being wiped out forever due to callous human activity and overfishing.

10. Medusa


Found in every ocean from the surface to the deep sea, jellyfish may have settled in the world's seas as early as 700 million years ago, making them the oldest multi-organ animals. The jellyfish is probably the only species on this list whose numbers may be increasing worldwide as a result of overfishing of their natural enemies. However, there are also some endangered species of jellyfish.

9. Platypus (Platypus)


This egg-laying animal with the beak of a duck, the tail of a beaver and the paws of an otter is often considered the strangest thing in the world. Not surprisingly, his appearance dates back to the prehistoric era. While the oldest platypus skeleton fossil found by scientists so far is only 100,000 years old, the platypus's first ancestor lived on the supercontinent Gondwana as far back as 170 million years ago.

8. Elephant shrew


Widely distributed throughout southern Africa, long-eared jumpers are small, four-legged mammals that resemble rodents or opossums but are, ironically, more closely related to elephants. According to the fossil record, the first ancestors of this strange creature lived during the Paleogene period (66 - 23 million years ago).

7. Pelican


Surprisingly, these large waterfowl, with their huge and long beaks, are among the living fossils that have changed little since prehistory. The fossil record shows that the pelican genus has been around for at least 30 million years. The oldest fossilized skeleton, found in early Oligocene sediments in France, bears a striking resemblance to the bird's modern form, with a beak morphologically identical to that of extant pelicans.

6. Mississippi Alligator Gar


Mississippian shellfish, one of the largest freshwater fish in North America, are often called "primitive fish" or "living fossils" due to the fact that they retain some morphological characteristics of their earliest ancestors, such as a spiral valve and the ability to breathe air. and in the water. The fossil record traces the existence of the carapace to over 100 million years ago.

5. Sponge


It is difficult to measure exactly how long sea sponges have existed on our planet, as estimates vary widely, but the oldest evidence of a sea sponge appears to be a fossilized skeleton recently discovered in a rock that is 760 million years old.

4. Slithertooth (Solenodon)


Snaptooths are venomous, nocturnal, burrowing mammals. This small creature, endemic to several Caribbean countries, is often called a living fossil because it has remained virtually unchanged over the past 76 million years, retaining the primitive mammalian characteristics typical of its prehistoric ancestors.

3. Crocodiles


Unlike sawtooths and many of the other animals on this list, crocodiles actually resemble dinosaurs. Including crocodiles, alligators, caimans, gharials and gharial crocodiles, this group emerged approximately 250 million years ago in the Early Triassic period and their modern descendants still share many of the morphological characteristics of their distant ancestors.

2. Pygmy right whale


The pygmy whale, thought to be extinct until 2012 when it was rediscovered, is the smallest of the baleen whales. Because it is a very rare animal, little is known about its population or social behavior. However, we do know that the pygmy whale is a descendant of the Cetotheriidae, a family of baleen whales that existed from the late Oligocene to the late Pliocene (28 - 1 million years ago).

1. Black-bellied disc-tongue frog (Hula painted frog)


Even frogs also have living fossils. Like the pygmy whale, the black-bellied disc-tongue frog was thought to be extinct until it was rediscovered in 2011. The frog was originally thought to have existed for only 15,000 years, however, based on phylogenetic analysis, it has been estimated that the frog's last direct ancestor existed approximately 32 million years ago, making the black-bellied disc-tongued frog the only extant member of the genus.