ExtinctZoo - 5 Times Evolution Created Prehistoric Hybrids

Episode Date: June 6, 2026

Ever wondered what you'd get if you combined a Gorilla with a Horse? No? Well evolution has and over the years it has created hybrids of sorts, prehistoric animals that seem to have been straight mash ups of various creatures.

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free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming, Ontario. If you're anything of a paleo nerd like me, then you probably have a few extinct animals that you consider favorites, with each itching some part of your brain. They could be giant like the brachiosaurus, small like the dodo, armor like the Ancilosaurus, etc., etc. And while all prehistoric animals bring their own charm and uniqueness, I do think it's fun to occasionally imagine what crazy beast you could cook up if you fuse your favorite prehistoric animals together, or combined them with a modern creature. And we've seen this done before in the Jurassic World franchise, with things such as the Indiraptor, Spinairaptor, and Stygoceratops. And I mean, even in the present, we have gotten a taste of hybrids, kind of.

As in biology, they are a real thing, with them even sporadically happening in the wild. But for the most part of hybrid animals is generally the result of human influence. We just can't seem to help ourselves. And this has led to animals such as mules, lagers, pampards, wopens, and the list goes on. And though we don't know of any true examples of hybridization in the fossil record, It does seem that Mother Nature on more than one occasion has given it a go, in a sense, as we have discovered bonker creatures that seem to have been straight-up mashups between totally different animals. And one of the most striking examples of this has to do with the

relic of the older Ice Age, the Callicotheirs. First appearing 33.9 million years ago during the legacine, this family of herbivores are amongst the strangest mammals to have ever evolved, but are also one of the less known extinct groups. And that is a downright shame, as they were in some ways a combo of two living animals that people love, gorillas and uh horses. Yeah, not exactly a combination you'd expect to ever hear, let alone see, nor one you'd expect would work as well as it did. And taking a look at the calicothea's, it's not hard to see which part of them were the so-called gorilla or horse, as despite having a face and body that more resembles a horse, its limbs were long, powerful, and hoofless, with each having three functional fingers or digits instead.

Now, obviously, this family isn't a lost group of primates, though, and nor were they horses, having belonged to their own separate group, which based upon classification studies, fell under the paracetactal order, with horses actually being considered their closest living relatives. And perhaps a reflection of this was their faces, which didn't only resemble horses, but also operated like theirs too, as it resulted in a diet of soft vegetation and seemingly muscular and prehensile lips that can in some ways function like a hand, grasping branches and grass. And because its head was horse-like, it was also originally believed that these animals are grazers just like them, and thus likely inhabiting grasslands. But we now know that wasn't the case, and that has everything to do with those bizarre guerrilla arms.

Both the legs and arms of a calicotheir were overall long and strong, but it was the arms in particular that were proportionally giant and elongated. And in fact, just like a gorilla, calicotheers got around by walking on their knuckles. And yes, this did make them slower than a horse, but these arms also allowed them to reach up in. and grab higher branches, before then bringing them down to their waiting mouths. And then in addition to helping the Kalikathir's get a snack in, each hand also came equipped with some pretty massive sharp claws that not only made their grasp stronger, but might have also come in handy with defense. As like guerrillas, it has been speculated that clickethers swung their arms around with mighty forces in order to bash in any would-be

attackers and competition. Something else that definitely helped their defenses further was that the Klikathars were like gorillas and horses, in the sense that there were pretty chunky animals. Well, At least some of them were. Now, even the smallest members are about the same size of sheep, which sounds quite small, but I don't know if you ever picked one of those guys up, but they aren't that light, with them sometimes weighing more than a freaking jaguar. But then sheep size aside, you also had the giants of the family, like the click Ethereum and Moropus, who could each stand 2.4 meters or 8 feet tall at the shoulder, making them taller

than Shaq, and they were also far heavier than Shaq as well, with bigger specimens potentially weighing over 1.1 tons. And during the Eocene, this made them one of the larger land animals around. And around they were, as they were found nearly everywhere, with the families spreading throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, and even North America, and then with Asia in particular, especially being a hotspot for diversity. Based off the location of their fossils, it appears that they tended to reside within and around wooded areas and do not seem to be very gregarious creatures, despite being related to horses.

As in nearly every formation they are known from, they seem to be quite rare numbers, pointing to more solitary lives. this seemed to work just fine for them, as along with other adaptations, click-a-thiers would end up existing for a seriously long time, only dying out about one million years ago, give or take, and thus ending a dynasty of mammals so unique that it's almost impossible to directly compare them to any other one creature. And this uniqueness is also seen in another Cenozoic family,

that was in some ways a blend of two carnivorans that today are still dominant animals, the bear and the dog. And this combo resulted in the group we now referred to as the amphisinae. However, based off of their traits and, frankly, their appearance, they are commonly inaptly called the bear dogs. Being even more ancient than the calicotheirs, this family mammalian predators first appeared in North America during the Middle Eocene some 45 million years ago, filling in a recently empty niche, and becoming among the first lineages of carnivorans to reach large sizes.

However, with that said, they did not start off large, with the earliest amphicyanids being smaller and nimbler than future generations. And one of the first general we know of is the Daphonis, which is the Daphoenus, which range from the size of just a house cat to around a small wolf. Now, this guy was a predator, but it was also an omnivore who had a generalistic diet and lifestyle comparable to that of the extant golden jackal. And because of its size and build, this guy was one of the bear dogs that didn't really match the name as much as its other later relatives. It would ultimately grow larger and more intimidating, becoming in many cases Apex predators capable of killing whatever they

wanted. And this was really seen when the subfamily, the amphicinae, emerged, who were not only among the larger of their kind, but also really making their nickname proud. It's from the dog side, they took elongated limbs, longer snouts, and more comparable dentition. While from the bear side, they had similar sizes and a fairly similar feet stance as well. Now, across this subfamily, some did lean more towards dog traits and other bear traits, but in the end, none of them were either or, as again, this was a separate group. Yet, what is interesting is that they are actually distant evolutionary cousins to both. And as you can probably imagine, taking the best of both worlds from dogs and bears and then combining them together, made the bear dogs a truly nightmareish group of predators, who ended up spreading to most continents and becoming the top predators, hunting a wide variety of animals using their specialized teeth that were designed to easily share flesh and their powerful mass of bodies that allow them to overpower prey.

Now, the biggest members seem to be able to grow to be between 550 kilograms and 773 kilograms, or 1,200 pounds to 1,700 pounds. So in other words, over half a ton, and fairly similar to the size seen in very large Codiac bears, which if you know anything about them, you would know they're not to be messed with. And so, with all this wrapped up into one package, these bear dogs were highly efficient machines and, in some ways, the kings their environments, leading to a reign that would essentially last for over 30 million years. And given their voraciousness, they would end up terrorizing many, many kinds of prehistoric

animals. So a generational PDSC right there. And their design was, well, so good that after a point, they didn't really change all that much, because I guess if it ain't broke, don't fix it. However, with that said, you're probably wondering, well, why aren't they here today? And that's a great question. It also comes with a quite repeated answer. And that's climate change, habitat loss, and competition,

with them essentially not being able to adapt quick enough to a changing world. And thus they died out about 5 million years ago. So apparently, when you are unique like this, it can ultimately become a crutch. And we again see this with a far older hybrid-like animal that was perhaps an even stranger combo than either the bear dogs or the clickathiers. And this was the Tanistrophius. When you first get a good look at this extremely strange creature, you probably immediately think, oh, that's just a pleasiosaur. But no, this prehistoric creature was not one of our favorite extinct icons,

and was in fact even older, having evolved during the early Triassic period. Now, as some of you may know, the Triassic period is already well known for creating some very funky creatures. But Tannistrophius, well, that guy was weird even for the time, as it was in some ways an animal that you would get if you combined a plesiosaur with a giraffe. And now you may be thinking, well, a pleasiosaur alone is kind of the same. Yet, the two are very fundamentally different. You see, the pleasosaurs were a fully aquatic group whose neck was designed to infiltrate shoals of fish from a distance. And their long necks, while mighty in the water, lacked the skeletal or muscular support to do much on land. And for this reason alone, dropping one on land wouldn't just be messed up, it would also be a certain death sentence.

The Tannistrophy is something of their hand would be just fine, as its evolutionary design did not confine it to the water, as its neck seemed to have been extremely stiff, a bit like a drafts, and well supported by bone and muscles. And with these features combined, it might just have been able to keep this large structure somewhat elevated well on land, especially since the neck was light for its size and stabilized by powerful tendons. So obviously this had some benefits, but at this. At the same time, because of its rigidity, it also meant that this creature could not bend its neck like a snake, with its flexibility being again more comparable to a giraffe's. For a while, it was thought that the Tanastrophius would have spent nearly all of its time and water, but because its limbs... Spotify, it's Jay Shetty.

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a strange sight, as it was no small fry. With the largest specimens, measuring up to six meters or 20 feet long, with an X alone, sometimes accounting for half of that total length. Unsurprisingly, given its very weird anatomy, its lifestyle has often been a source of fascination, and though it might have looked a bit like a reptilian giraffe, it didn't really live like one, obviously. Not only because it was semi-aquatic, but also because it was a carnivore, which we know thanks to its thin conical teeth that were in some cases interlocked, making them similar to those of a pleasiosaur and suggesting that they were used to catch slimy, wiggily prey like fish and cephalopods. But how exactly did it catch prey is a slippery subject, pun intended,

with many different ideas being out there. For example, some think it swam after fish, others think it lowered its neck over water like a fishing rod, and then a few even believe that it did these things, and then on top of that hunted animals on land as well, like some sort of carnivorous giraffe, which, at least to me, sounds quite terrifying. Whatever the case, though, this tactic seemed to have worked pretty well, as the creature is known in great numbers from a variety different formations that span across Europe, Asia, and North America, while the genus alone ended up existing for 10 million years. And though far larger than its relatives, it was a member the Tanistrophia Day, who all had similar appearances and as a whole were fairly abundant

creatures during the whole Triassic. But alas, they all would go extinct eventually, including the Tanasrophias. And in the case of it, one thing that might have harmed his chances at long-term survival was a vulnerability that is designed created. You see, having such a vulnerable body part that was not necessarily out of the way like a giraffe's very tall head would be, led to the tannistrophias being highly preyed upon. And we do see that many specimens had fatal devastating bites with the neck that in some cases essentially decapitated them, with some suspected predators, beating athosaurus, eclosaurus, and the Helveticosaurus. And so ultimately, while they were successful in the Jurassic, they would not see the Jurassic. And such a phase seems quite common for many of the

Terasics' strange creations, including another fusion of animals that had a bit to do with the most famous of all extinct creatures, the T-Rexecks. However, this mashup is not a dinosaur, but instead a dismalade archisora form, the erytherosucas. This monstrosity of an animal first shows up in the fossil record about 249 million years ago right after the Permian stage it ended, and it was one of the first animals to fill in the meter gaps left behind from the great dying. And when you see the skeleton of this animal, it's quite easy to figure out the gap that's being filled.

Yeah, a predatory one, seeing that this thing basically looks like if a T-Rex and a terrestrial crock and a baby together, resulting in a bobble-like head built for absolute carnage. And in fact, when it was first discovered, its head was so giant and theropod-like that even the paleontologists who found it thought they had unearth a new theropod similar to the wrecks. But once they started finding more remains, they realized that nope, this was in reality a very strange four-legged reptile, with a oversized noggin. And when I say oversized, I am not exaggerating, as the skull of the erytherousousicus alone was possibly up to one meter or three feet long.

While then its total length was just 4 meters or 20 feet. Yeah, just. Which also means that this two-ton giant had a skull 25% of its total length, which for the record is about double the size of our head, proportionally speaking. And sadly for the animals that lived alongside, this enormous thinker was not so it could eat greens to its heart's content, with its preferred food, usually being red and bloody, as the erythrosuchus was the pinnacle of apex predators during its heyday, with a jaw being filled by dozens of razor-sharp, large conical teeth that were also serrated and curate.

And so you really didn't need much power to sink these bad boys through flesh. But you know, why go halfway? And apparently they thought the same. Because that head of theirs would design to pack in as much muscles as humanly possible, or as archisorally possible, to allow them to snap those killing blocks with deadly power that might have been similar to the bite forces, the modern large crocodiles. And so this essentially allowed them to eat whatever they wanted whenever they wanted, no matter if their target was a fellow predator with their own weapons or a large herbivore with the

extensive armor, because it simply did not matter, with a single bite probably being enough to severely cripple even the largest animals around. In fact, because of its head and tools, it sought that the erythrusuchus became a hyper carnivore, meaning over 70% of its diet was meat, and it also allowed it to rain across the Carew of Triassic South Africa, meaning this four-legged T-Rex was likely hunting animals such as the Konomayria, Diadamodon, and even a fan favorite, the Lestrosaurus. And so, the benefits of its monstrous head is, quite clear. But putting all of your points, so to speak, into a supermouth does have some drawbacks as well. For starters, its massive head needed extensive support to keep it up,

especially since it was not a mega giant like the real wrecks, and as a result it had a short, stout neck to limit its ability to move its head around. And then on top of this, the head also made it not the fastest predator around, forcing it to rely on ambushes to catch prey, who typically then also had to be on the slurricide, and perhaps it's because of these limitations that the a earthrusus eventually went extinct, unable to compete with a more nimble, agile predators. So, I guess the moral of the story is, if you're going to go for a Tyrannosaur-like build, don't set on a compact four-legged body. Surprisingly, though, one combo that worked exceptionally well is taking a hyena, combining it with a pig, and then

sprinkle some hippo in there too. I know, sounds weird, but hear me out. Because once you do this, you get a group of extinct mammals that are both intimidating and extremely successful, the The Intellodons, more commonly known as the Hell Pigs. And it's a pretty fitting name, too, as they were surprisingly pig-like, possessing broad snouts, large clove and hoves, and a similar stomach anatomically speaking, despite having evolved a bit earlier than Sue Eads, where the Intelodons first appearing during the late Eocene, while the pig family then showed up right after in the Legosine. But despite this timing coincidence, the two groups aren't actually that closely related,

with the Hellpigs being genetically closer to cetaceans and then the hippo as well. And so, given this affinity, it also obviously means that the intelodons were not hyenas, or closely related to them either. But they might have fooled you at first, as generally speaking, the hell pigs did possess some hyenaish traits, namely when it came to lifestyle and dentition. As just like our modern hyenas, these guys had evolved reinforced jaw structures that were highly muscled and possessed giant durable teeth that were seemingly designed to process a wide variety material, which on top of meat also included lots of bones, which if you didn't know, crushing

bones of something living hyenas like to do as well. And so this adaptation allowed the Intelodontidae to access the caloric dense bone marrow of not only animals it hunted, but also the prey of other animals, well then also getting their fill of minerals like calcium and phosphorus. And we know they did this, as the wear patterns found on their teeth is remarkably similar to what's seen in spotted hyenas. And then taking a page from their close relatives, the hippos, the intelodonts had also evolved large bony growths and protrusions on their skulls that might have served as anchoring points for both jaw and neck muscles, or perhaps just have acted as a means to intimidate things. And boy, oh boy, were they scary. Not that it really matters, though, because if the scare tactics

failed, they could always bust out their crushing bite force, which was only made deadlier by the fact that they had digastricus muscles, which were a bit like a hippo, having been very well developed. This also likely allowed them to open their mouths extremely wide, such as again seen in the hippo, allowing for not only competitive behavior between rivals, but also assisting in hunts. as due to their hooved feet, they would not have been able to grapple with prey, and therefore having a wide-open bite that could get around the body moving prey was essential for its survival. But with that said, if hunting did not do the trick, the intel adults still had other options to choose from, as their diets were not picky at all, being opportunistic omnivores like pigs, who also seemed to have extensively scavenged, especially in the dry seasons. And this is reflected by both isotopic analysis and its wear patterns once again. Unsurprisingly, this ability to eat just about anything they came across let the

intelligence expand into a variety of ecosystems, no matter the changes they brought, and resulted in them, for example, being found in both plains and forests. Their adaptability also added them in their expansion, from North America, where they were found originally, to large parts of Europe and Asia, where they became one of the more dominant groups around. And while they aren't necessarily considered apex predators, nothing was trying to have beef with the adults, who could get pretty massive. The smaller ones were about the size of a large deer, whereas the largest, like the Deidon,

from up to 750 kilos or 1,650 pounds, so heavier than most horses are. Only, their bite wouldn't just leave the sore mark, rather leaving you an unrecognizable mess. And so with all these traits going on for the hell pigs, they were able to hold on for an impressive duration, existing for over 15 million years. And ultimately while they and the rest of the hybrids are gone, there are still other examples out there that prove how creative mother nature can get. I mean, just 800,000 years ago, weed animals like this of Ethereum, a giant herbivore that was essentially a giraffe and moose in one. And the craziest part is that this guy lived in the Himalayas.

And if you want to learn more about it and some pretty nifty other animals, you can do so by checking on my video about the prehistoric Himalayas. But for now, thanks for watching. And until next time, on extinct zoo. Hey, y'all's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair. Ever order furniture online and wonder what if? Like, what if it doesn't hold up? That sofa was four days old. You should have ordered from Wayfair. With Wayfair, there's no one. What if? Just style you love and quality you can trust. Visit wayfair.ca. Wayfair, every style, every home.