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This Prehistoric Sea Creature Was Once The Largest Animal On Earth

This Ancient 'Sea Monster' Was Once The Largest Animal On Earth
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Senior Science Editor, The Huffington Post

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Pristine fossils recently unearthed in southeastern Morocco have been identified as the remains of a bizarre sea creature that -- with a body that spanned about seven feet -- was once the largest animal on Earth.

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An illustration of the newly identified species, Aegirocassis benmoulae.

The fossils date back 480 million years to the Palaeozoic Era and reveal that Aegirocassis benmoulae was an anomalocaridid, an extinct kind of arthropod -- which is a group of species that includes crustaceans, arachnids, and insects.


Close-up of Aegirocassis filter-feeding 'net' fossil.

One weird-looking animal. The animal sported a long head, a segmented body, gills on its back, and a very unusual set of fins.

"Aegirocassis is a truly remarkable looking creature," Dr. Derek Briggs, a Yale University paleontologist and co-author of a paper about the discovery, said in a written statement. “We were excited to discover that it shows features that have not been observed in older Cambrian anomalocaridids — not one but two sets of swimming flaps along the trunk, representing a stage in the evolution of the two-branched limb, characteristic of modern arthropods such as shrimps."

Not as scary as he looks. Despite its size and fearsome looks, Aegirocassis benmoulae probably wasn't the creatures of your nightmares.

"Given the huge size of Aegirocassis and its very alien appearance, I assume most people would probably be terrified if they'd encounter it while swimming," Dr. Peter Van Roy, a paleontologist at Ghent University in Belgium and lead author of the paper, told Reuters. "However, contrary to almost all other anomalocaridids which were active predators, our animal would have been a very peaceful guy."

The paper was published online in the journal Nature on March 11, 2015.

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Before You Go

Extinct Prehistoric Animals
Titanis walleri(01 of09)
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This North American bird, which stood over 8 feet tall, would have had an enormous, axe-like beak. (credit:Dmitry Bogdanov / Creative Commons)
Dunkleosteus terreli(02 of09)
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This heavily-armored predator had the second most powerful bite of any fish. (credit:Nobu Tamura / Wikimedia Commons)
Indricotherium(03 of09)
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The hornless rhinoceros-like creatures of this genus were the largest land mammals of all time. (credit:Dmitry Bogdanov / Creative Commons)
Megatherium(04 of09)
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Giant ground sloths of this genus were about the size of today's elephants. The megatherium only went extinct around 10,000 years ago (right around the time when humans started farming), and smaller relatives may have survived as late as the 16th century! (credit:Dmitry Bogdanov / Creative Commons)
Dinornis novaezealandiae(05 of09)
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Richard Owen, director of London's Museum of Natural History, stands next to the largest of all moa. Moa, which originated in New Zealand, were flightless, and some were even wingless. (credit:John van Voorst)
Argentavis magnificens(06 of09)
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The Argentavis magnificens, an early relative of the Andean Condor, was the largest flying bird ever discovered. (credit:Stanton F. Fink / Creative Commons)
Diprotodon optatum(07 of09)
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These creatures, the largest marsupials that ever lived, roamed Australia. Some scientists have suggested that stories of the supernatural 'bunyip' creature in Aboriginal folklore could be based on diprotodonts. (credit:Dmitry Bogdanov / Creative Commons)
Deinotherium giganteum(08 of09)
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These distant relatives of modern elephants had an imposing appearance, with strange, downward-curving tusks and heights of up to 16 feet at the shoulder. (credit:Dmitry Bogdanov / Creative Commons)
Leedsichthys problematicus & Liopleurodon rossicus(09 of09)
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The fearsome Liopleuredon, right, had a jaw nearly ten feet long. The Leedsichthys, left, was a bony fish that may have been even larger than it looked; some estimates put its maximum length at 53 feet.Correction: An earlier version of this slide had the positions of the Liopleuredon and Leedsichthys reversed. (credit:Dmitry Bogdanov / Creative Commons)
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