The great Jurassic Park taught us two important things: not rely on zoo security, and certainly not growing dinosaurs in test tubes. Millions of years ago, when the human race itself was still in the project, the Earth was ruled by great and dangerous predators. Today, many of them have evolved into socially acceptable creatures, but at that time even a giant sloth was able to tear a lion in half, and a meeting with a crocodile could cost even a Tyrannosaurus rex!
Arctodus
Currently, the largest bears on the planet are the Polar Bear and the Alaskan Kodiak. Both beasts seem like a sketch of Winnie the Pooh compared to the ancient giant Arctodus, whose weight reached a ton. This incredible bear lived during the Ice Age, about 11,700 years ago.
Megalodon
The length of the great white shark can be up to 9 meters, which makes a meeting with it in the ocean a very unpleasant surprise for any diver. But the megalodon grew to a whopping 20 meters - if he lived today, sailing would become a very, very dangerous occupation.
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Elasmotherium
The prehistoric cousin of the rhinoceros Elasmotherium weighed four tons and had a horn one and a half meters long. The unicorn from the virgin's terrible nightmares disappeared only at the end of the Ice Age, so our distant ancestors had the pleasure of seeing it with their own eyes.
Titanboa
Afraid of snakes? Then this Godzilla of the reptile world should just make you shiver. Thirty-meter snakes glided across the planet about 60 million years ago, remaining unsurpassed hunters of the deep jungle and river creeks.
Gigantopithecus
These primates lived about 9 million years ago and could very well have become the ancestor of modern humans. King Kong of the prehistoric era grew up to five meters in height and a weight of several centners: compared to this monkey, any stories about the Yeti seem like funny tales.
Deinosuchus
And here is the great-grandfather crocodile, the great Deinosuchus. It is not the largest on our list, but it is definitely the most dangerous. Why? Because the main means of food for Deinosuchus were tyrannosaurs!
Megatherium
Modern sloths are nothing more than cute and useless animals, spending all their time in a sweet slumber. Scientists are still puzzling over how these animals could have originated from a giant megatherium, the length of which from head to tail was 10 meters, and the weight reached 4 tons. Paleontologists have found that the megatherium walked on two legs and ate tree leaves.