ExtinctZoo - The Deadliest Time To Ever Step Foot On Pangea

Episode Date: October 4, 2026

Pangea was never really a safe place to begin with, but this one moment, jeez lemme tell ya...

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and supports life-saving cancer research at the Princess Margaret. Feel free to buy your payday-for-life ticket today. Raffle number RAF 157-3916. Please play responsibly. Pangaea, the super landmass of old, and perhaps the most famous continent to ever exist, on which no human has ever set foot. Now, it's not the only supercontinent to have existed,

but it was the most recent in Earth's history, And at its peak, over 98% of Earth's land was tied up into it, meaning they could walk from somewhere like New York to New Delhi without ever having to touch water. This also meant that, by consequence, that everything had access to everything. In other words, if you put yourself at one end and a T-Rex at the other and waited long enough, you might run into it, theoretically. And as such, this place would have been quite lively. And on this supercontinent, a countless number of generations would have lived out their lives here. with pangia also having been exceptionally long-lived first assembling during the carboniferous about 335 million years ago before it finally started to break apart between 200 to 175 million years ago

during the early Jurassic period and therefore that for over 100 million years longer than the dinosaurs have been gone pangia remained and just for comparison the current continental situation on earth is only about 8 000 years old and so because it's so old even though pangia was the common denominator throughout this entire time you you can be absolutely sure that nothing about Earth or its life was the same when it formed versus when it ended, with up to 27 different ages having played out over this mega continent. And during each of these ages, the world would have had its own new set to mysterious, wondrous, and frankly deadly creatures.

Not to mention the fact that Pangea itself as a whole wasn't for the faint of hearted either, and to survive here at any point in time, you ought to be one tough cookie. Yet that begs the question of when exactly was the deadliest time to have set foot, on the continent. After all, there are so many moments to choose from. Now, the answer to this is if we are talking about just one moment, or at least a brief moment, geologically speaking, the easy answer here is the Great Dying, which is kind of self-explanatory, as this was the Permian mass extinction event, and as such a major doomsday in which over 90% of Earth's species were eradicated, due to massive volcanic eruptions, and turned Penge into a furnace and

wasteland in more ways than one. And if you had been a species walking around on land at the time, you'd have about a 70% chance in not making it. However, to be honest, I think picking this moment is kind of cheating, as well as picking any other moment in which the danger was solely Mother Nature's doing, as seen during the early Triassic as well, when the continent remained a burning death trap in the wake of the Great Dying. So instead, I want to focus on the deadliest time in Panjia's history that was actually extended and as a result of the life in Panjia's climate rather than some natural disaster. And in this case, while many moments would be valid contenders, I actually think the answer

The answer is somewhat of a no-brainer, and that would be the late Triassic, a time when death was arguably easier to come by than pretty much any other time during the dinosaurs rule, as the lands of Pangea were utterly filled to the brim with specialized killers in danger around every corner and in every nook and cranny. So going back roughly 237 million years ago during the Cernian Age, Pangea was still a massive sprawlant land at this time, despite it being in the later stages of its life. As such, you would have experienced the quote-unquote funny climate you get when everything is super glued together, as the sheer size of this continent led to extremely volatile seasons

with periods of intense heat and aridity, as well as moments like a switch for a high-power sprinkler, high precipitation will kick in instead, such as when we saw the carnian pluvial vent, in which it essentially reigned for two million years straight. So perhaps sprinkler wasn't the best analogy here. However, in general, the late Triassic was mainly hot and semi-arid, with large parts of interior Pangea still being made up of giant deserts, arid steps, and harsh environments. Although temperatures tended to be much hotter than the present as well, with the planet being in a hot-house state, which also meant that there were no permanent ice caps in the north and south poles, and as such, higher sea levels. These relatively harsh conditions present on Pangea partially led to their being brutal competition throughout the late Triassic.

Not to mention that by this point enough time had passed since the Great Dying, but animals actually had a time to recover and evolve a bit, turning their residents into a bunch of times. of very terrifying creatures. And one really interesting aspect of the late Triassic that you don't find with other times of Pangaea was that for some reason in many areas, carnivores not only outnumbered herbivores, but did so in great number. In a few cases, reaching a tenfold the amount, and it wasn't just sheer numbers that predators held edge in. So, in other words, we're talking about a carnivore eat carnivore world here, a far cry from what we usually see when we think of those classroom food chain infographics. Now,

To be fair, it's not exactly understood why this was the case back then, with it just perhaps being the result of the wacky aftermath of the great dying. But whatever the case was, it created a lot of toothy animals and some great business for undoubtedly any dentist. And with such a plethora of predators, a good chunk of these were undoubtedly deadly. However, with that said, it was clear who the nastiest of the bunch were, and that would be the archosaurs, who dominated the land and existed in many forms, with a major player in the late Triassic being the pseudosukians, a major branch of archosaurs for the

are more related to Crocs than dinosaurs. They had only evolved in the continent during the early Triassic, but had since taken over the scene in blinding speed. And by the late Triassic, they'd entered their heyday with multiple subgroups forming and spreading out across the continent, which included, by the way, the infamous Rawi Sukians,

or as I like to call them, the kings before the dinosaurs, just given their general sizes, dominance, and voraciousness. Now, unlike the future giant theropods that would terrorize the planet, Rawisukians tended to be quadrupeds instead of bipeds, and in some cases, were actually herbivorous as well. But for the most part, these were four-legged hypercarivores,

who were regularly giant and often their ecosystem's top predator. And that really means something considering they were found in nearly all of Pangea and inhabited a myriad of different biomes. And I was not joking about them being giant, as really you can only call a few of them small, and I'm doing air quotes as I say that. As for example, the Apatisukas, one of the smallest Rawi-sukians to have ever existed, was a corgi-sized member who lived in Pengi in Germany. But even in its case, I'd reckon it could still remove your hand from your body relatively easily, thanks for the group's trademarked ziphodon teeth, which is the fancy word for laterally compressed, sharp and serrated teeth

that are specifically designed to slice through flesh and meat like a hot knife through butter. And as such, just one bite from these guys could turn most animals into a bloody mess. And again, most Ravisukians were far larger, with multiple kinds like Staginusus, Sarasukasukas, Mabuakalai, Luperosucas, Batrakatomas, and of course the infamous Fasolosucas, all being longer than 4 meters or 13 feet, which is for perspective the same length as a record-sized bull shark. And really, a lot of these hunters got even bigger as well, with the Fasolosucas, literally

having been the largest four-legged predator of all time, potentially measuring 10 meters or 33 feet in length, and even outsizing your average allosaurus from a weight standpoint. So to summarize, Pangea wasn't just full of predators during late Triassic, it was home to literally some of the largest and most efficient killers to ever evolve, period. Not to mention that on top of having maxed out their offense, Rauwisukians also possessed varying level of osteoderms or bony scutes that provided a good degree of defense as well. Yet, like I alluded to, while the vast majority were quadrupeds, there were also a few that

we've learned over the years were actually bipedal, such as the etchosuchus and postasucas, two equally ferocious large hunters that, given their stance, essentially looked like large theropods that many of you are familiar with. But something that's pretty strange or perhaps miraculous, depending on your opinion, is that alongside these two bipedal genera, you had a whole other class of deadly killers that lived across Pengia during the late Triassic that were also mainly bipedal themselves. But again, we're not dinosaurs. And these were the Papasaroidia.

Now, just to clarify before anyone runs to the comments, Papasauras were traditionally considered Rahuacians. But since Rauusukians has been demoted to a paraphyletic group, they're more of like the sister group to the ones that gave rise to the Fesolausucas and others. So let's just let go of all that confusion and just hold on to the fact that popposaurs were absolutely just as brutal of killers as their cousins, who largely only differed in their style of locomotion, choosing to chase prey on two feet. Well, then they may have also utilized their arms to grasp and manipulate prey. Now, considering their appearance and how they hunted, you might also wonder how exactly these things were not considered theiropods then.

And the answer to that is, actually for a long time, they were, given their stark resemblances. Yet we now know they had very little relation with dinosaurs, with a major difference being that they held pillar erect stances, while theropods traditionally have something called buttress erect stances, plus their ankle construction differed as well as their number of ribs. And then compared to other Rauwisukians, something that set them apart, is that the papasores widely lacked osteoderms, and in numerous cases had sails instead, as seen in general like hypeceleracus, a lion-sized member from Tanzania, who might have used their sails for visual display, thermoregulation or for breeding signals. Meanwhile, other sail list members, like the flagship

Papasaurus, looked much more like any other theropod you might expect to see during the Mesozoic. And this confusion was only exaggerated by their large sizes, with an old specimen sometimes measuring up to 5 meters or 16 feet long. So similar to many small to medium-sized theropods from the Triassic and Early Jurassic. So in some ways, the late Triassic was really just like a buffet of different killers that you could choose from, including those that were dinosaur copy. Well, I guess the other way around really, but you get my point. And just like the later carnivorous dinosaurs, the Papasauridae probably had similar diets in the sense that they too would have hunted a variety of megafaunal prey, and were in some

areas the apparent apex predator. Although you would have had to add an asterix to the apex part. And come to think of it, you probably need to add that asterisk to pretty much any late Triassic predator, with the reason being that in a world where everything is a predator, nothing was absolutely safe. No matter what you were or where you were, one unfortunate slip where just letting your guard down for a moment could lead to you becoming dinner for another. And there are even real examples of this.

Most notably, a Rawi Sukian discovered in America's Chinle formation, which had seemingly been attacked and killed by another kind of penjiant killer, a phytosaur. Phytosaurs were large, mainly semi-aquatic archosaurs that shared remarkable similarity to living crocodilians, with their appearances, lifestyle, and sizes being very alike. And with them essentially being a stark example of convergent evolution, seeing that the two groups are not closely related. And so unsurprisingly, these guys largely inhabited the freshwater of the supercontinent and their banks, and were highly successful generalistic predators, ready to tackle pretty much anything that came their way, even supposedly Rauwisukians as seen here, with a fossil this Rauwisukian having had a tooth stuck inside its femur.

And the bite showed no signs of having healed at all, suggesting that the phytosaur was successful in this clash between two giant predators. And now at this point you might be thinking, well, okay, but it was probably the smaller Rahu-Sukian, you know, the one that was corgi-sized or whatnot. And that's where it's kind of surprising here, because this example shows you that you can't really rely on size alone in these times. As the Phytosaur, i.e. the perpetrator, was actually quite a bit smaller than its victim, being a measly, air quotes here, six meters or 20 feet long, whereas the Rwisukian was 8 meters or 26 feet long. Ironically, making the Rauysukian just about the biggest predator the Phytosaur could have attacked. and just goes to show how vicious late Triassic was, where even a killer, five times longer than a wolf, had to be careful at all times.

And what was perhaps even more surprising than this is that it turns out that this wasn't the first time the Rwisukian had run into trouble, as healed marks on the exact same bone indicated it had been attacked by another phytosaur previously, a smaller one as well, but survived this first encounter, showing that both of these attacks weren't necessarily something like one in a million, and in fact could be relatively common. And so the moralist story that I take away from this at least is stay away from any bodies of water you come across in Pangea and just maybe try to build some sort of long, straw-like apparatus instead. And not to mention that even when you forget about the giant carnivorous phytosaurs for a second, this was still the age where you'd find some pretty ferocious amphibians lurking around in the waterways as well, with the temnospondal still being alive and exceedingly deadly.

Because if you may remember from a recent video I did, it was during this time that the quote-unquote beauty of Lesotho lived amongst the rivers and lakes and this was a massive brachypoid hemispondal that was possibly seven meters or 23 feet long which to put that in perspective means that this is an amphibian larger than any great white ever captured and i for one am not getting anywhere near the water knowing that this thing and not to mention other brachypoids and things were just lurking waiting to strike and as if the waters of pengea weren't crowded enough already it was in the late triassic that you would have also encountered a group of very strange archisora forms that only lived in the earth

Earth for a blink of a second, geologically speaking, but were widespread during late Triassic, having a first evolved in the middle Triassic. But as said blink alludes to, only lasted until the end of the period. And that would be the Proterocapsia. A bit like the Phytosaurs, these were semi-aquatic crock-like predators found in multiple parts of the continent, but had a particularly high concentration within the South American portion. They were heavily armed creatures, thanks to a high presence of osteoderms, and in these days, any additional defense was welcome news, but what really made this bunch quite different, wasn't their extensive armor, but their unusually long necks, as well as their limbs, which happened to be elongated as well, suggesting that while they were

semi-aquatic and powerful swimmers, they were still quite adept at getting around on land, too. In some cases, probably being even more capable of hunting outside of the water than inside. Armed with sharp conical teeth, the protrochampsia likely went for a grasping and piercing prey strategy, leaving escape essentially a futile hope, before then dragging them to the abyss or just swallowing them whole. Now as far as As far as late Triassic killers go, these reptiles weren't necessarily the largest swamp pumpies around, with most being the size of large monitor lizards. But a couple, like the Protero-Camps, could get bigger, in some cases reaching around 3.4 meters, or roughly 11 feet in length.

So akin to a good-sized American alligator, which might you could easily kill a grown human in water, except this alligator also has the ability to run on land after you. Well, that is. And speaking of getting chased, in the late Triassic, the Earth saw the rise of a whole new clative animals, of which, unsurprisingly, many were killers. And though they hadn't yet to reach their peak during La Triassic, which is a big hint for you, a few of them could have still done some serious damage, even way back then. And I am, as you can probably guess it, talking about dinosaurs, specifically theropods. Yes, it was actually during La Triassic that the very first unequivocal

species of dinosaurs evolved. And let me tell you, they spent very little time playing around, rapidly diversifying and growing in size despite the chaotic and real nature of pangea. Therpods in particular did a lot of this diversifying, and at first they would have been small fries, chasing little critters around. But by the time the Carnian rolled through, it was a very different story, and they had evolved into some real killers. And chief amongst them was the genus known as hererosaurus, a Sariscian originating from the South American part of Pangaea, that by no means being as big as the later giant therepods that would eventually emerged on Earth was still big for this day and age, measuring some six meters or 20 feet long and weighing up to 350 kilograms or 770 pounds, on part of that with the Cretaceous

Dakota Raptor, which for reference was one of the largest raptors to ever evolve. And at this size, the mature herarasaurus was more than capable of taking down small to medium-sized prey, including other dinosaurs that lived within its environment. It was armed with a pair of powerful arms and claws, plus a reinforced skull designed essentially some sort of fanged scissor, allowing it to grip and cut prey at the same time when biting down. And since it was relatively lightly built, it would have benefited from being an agile runner, too, utilizing its dinosaur patented stance to officially chase down prey and escape encounters with far larger, albeit slower predators. And as a whole, the herosaurus actually managed

to become one of the most abundant predators in their region. So we can clearly say it was pretty darn successful despite all the odds stacked against it. But with that said, even with its agility and weapons, it too fell prey to this predator-e-predator world, where the schools of heresaurus's having been found with bite marks coming from Rauysukians. So you really don't want to time travel to this period. Now another theropod that was known to late Triassic Pengea and was an accomplished hunter within its own right was the Gojirosaurus, which was named after Godzilla himself for its giant proportions for the late Triassic, being similar to the herosaurus, measuring up to 6 meters or 20 feet and weighing 190 kilos or

440 pounds. So at first glance, it certainly wasn't as heavy as the former, but the interesting thing about the Gojurosaurus is that the only known fossils we have stem from immature, still-growing individuals. So in other words, it is possible that grudic sizes greater than anything seen in other late Triassic theropods. And just like its cousin, it too reside in the American region of Pangae, except this time in North America. But it would have been in further differed from herosaurus by having possessed an even more grossile build and a longer neck, making it somewhat look like an oversized seal of fysis, which was another late triastic dinosaur. And because of their shared features, some have even gingerly assigned it to the seal of

Faisoida family, but for now its classification remains somewhat dodgy. What is certain, though, is that this was one successful predator that might have fed on smaller terrestrial animals and possibly aquatic creatures too, namely fish and turtles, both of which for abundant in areas where fossils of Goirosaurus have been discovered. And not wanting to be outdone by its upstart cousins, you would find another group commonly associated with dinosaurs here as well, and that is Terosaurus, who would be showing up for the first time in Pengea's history, too, only having appeared in later days of the Triassic. And just like the dinosaurs, they too made some impressive gains within a very short period,

becoming the largest flying animals to ever existed up until this point. And while they were definitely not Pangaea's deadliest creatures, they still got uncomfortably large and fearsome. To the point that if I was walking in an open area here, I'd definitely still take the time to scour the skies. That said, though, for the most part, many latrassic terosaurs were largely smaller and specialized in prey unrelated in any way to people, being largely insectivores or percivorous. However, a few of them, including multiple genera from the dimorphodontidae, such as the dimorphodon and Celesteventus, were medium-sized and a possession of some really nasty looking teeth. Now, I doubt they'd be capable of killing a grown adult, or would even be interesting. in trying but in the off chance that one of these guys were really territorial as we've seen certain modern birds cough cough looking at you swans I wouldn't want to find out

what it feels like to get bit or even scratched as they also had fairly wicked claws as well so really in late Triassic Pangea you could expect danger to come for you from pretty much any direction and the crazy thing is is that even at this point after all we've talked about I've only scratched the surface a predator you could run into with some of the other Panjian residents including the Repetusucids or Nithusucids and a whole bunch of other archa-saurus that we aren't too sure where they fall but do know that like everything else here were exceptionally deadly i mean just take a look at the smock no thanks and really just to drive this point home even further even our ancestors the synodonts were getting in on the bloodthirst

as while yes many of them were herbivores a handful did become predators such a certain synagnathia and the extinct family china codontidae who were small to medium-diamondi who were small to medium dog-sized. But as the saying goes, it's not about the size of the proto dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in a proto dog. And really, I think this all just goes to show that Pangea was never just a place you'd want to step foot on unless you were playing borderlands. And even then, that would probably be questionable. However, all this said, if you went to bed one day and managed to wake up in Pangea during this time, I could not in good faith really give you any advice. Because you might think I'd recommend you to jump ship and swim out into the ocean,

expecting to escape the danger, but that's just simply not true, as the waters that surround a Pangaea held their very own nightmares, sometimes even worse. Yet their story is for another day. Thanks for watching, and until next time, on Extinct Zoo. From the studio that brought you Wanda Vision. I was an Avenger, but I'm not a hero anymore. On October 14th, the Vision returns for the final chapter of the groundbreaking trilogy.

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