ExtinctZoo - The Most Brutal Deaths Ever Preserved In Fossils

Episode Date: February 1, 2025

To scrape by back in the old days you had to be extremely tough, but as these 9 Fossils show, sometimes being among the toughest animals to ever exist, still gets you nothing but a painful ending.

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Save up to 40% your first year at LifeLock.com slash special offer. Terms apply. Accomplishing certain things in life requires a boatload of luck. And a good example of this is winning the lottery. It is so unlikely that you've got a better chance of dying while buying a ticket than actually winning the lottery itself, with your odds of glory being about 1 in 300 million. And yet, these odds are fantastic compared to the chances of a bone of yours becoming fossilized.

As recent research estimates that only one bone in a billion turn to fossils. To put this into perspective, this process, is so rare that less than one-tenth of 1% of all species that have ever existed gets fossilized. And that's not even taking into account the odds of being found after fossilization. So, it's no surprise that fossils in general are far and few in between, making it hard to fully understand what life was like for prehistoric animals. But once in a while, we get really lucky. We find a specimen that not only helps us understand extinct animals better,

but also plainly shows us how brutal the ancient animals, brutal the ancient world could be. As over the years, a few exceptional fossils have been found, which literally contain animals locked in death, or depict a horrifically violent demise, and bringing us the closest thing to real-life prehistoric battle royals. And one of the craziest examples that we know of comes from an animal that was walking around not so long ago,

the Colombian mammoth. These guys, thanks to their size and giant tusks, were one of the icons of the Ice Age, in some of the most metal mammals to live, period. having had to deal with an array of legendary predators that ranged both in size and killing methods. And yet ironically, it wasn't an ambitious carnivore that it was discovered locked in battle with, but rather with another fully-grown mammoth. This fight took place in Nebraska, and is believed to have played out around 12,000 years ago,

which also means that it's possible that a person actually witnessed this battle, hypothetically. And it surely would have been quite the sight, as it was a particularly gruesome struggle, even by prehistoric standards. And interestingly enough, paleontologists think it was such a bloody and lethal battle solely because of something that would seemingly make a fight more harmless, broken tusks. Both mammoths involved were already each missing one tusk, which unfortunately for them meant that they were able to get closer than they normally would be able to, and as they ran into each other, something rather gruesome happened.

That being that one of the combatants ended up taking a tusk straight through its eye socket. it. For any normal person, a gouged eye would be the definitive end of a fight, and for a mammoth, it probably was too. And yet there was a big problem preventing peace, and that again had to do with the missing tusks. Normally after a fight would end, the two mammoths would be able to unlock from one another with relative ease, and then carry on their day, minus, you know, a missing eye in this case. But due to the odd shapes of the broken tusks, the fighters this time became intermingled and firmly stuck together, resulting in a massive dilemma that forced both to keep thugging it out, using their bodies to push and pull against the other.

Eventually, one of the mammoths, absolutely exhausted from all the effort, lost its balance and fell to the floor, dragging the other one down with it. In this fall, things went from awkward and dicey to doomed, as their bodies landed in an awkward position and made standing back up an impossibility, especially since both are estimated to have weighed over 10 tons. And as they lay on the floor worn out by their epic battle, they slowly withered and died to either hunger or dehydration, before being buried and subsequently fossilized.

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Beneath the leg of one of the mammoths, researchers discovered a coyote with a pulverized head, indicating that at some point he got accidentally squashed. Now, why this coyote thought it was a good idea to get close to the mammoths is a mystery. But some speculate that he got caught in the crossfire whilst trying to scavenge upon whichever one died first, and thus leading to it becoming one of the unluckiest coyotes of all time. However, thanks to another much older fossil, we know that this coyote is still not anywhere near being the top content. for the unluckiest death of all time. As that accomplishment goes to a rather surprising candidate, the allosaurus, or rather, an

allosaurus. Opposed to finding two animals locked in duel, researchers in 1999 found a 147 million-year-old allosaurus who had a very peculiar and nasty injury, that being that his pelvis looked like something had drilled a large hole straight through it. Which is bad enough, but what really sucked for this guy was that the location on the pelvis match where you'd expect to find the crotch on allosaurus. And things did not get better for this unfortunate predator, because even though it survived the initial wound, a giant fist-sized abscess soon developed, and over the following weeks

it developed a raging infection that ultimately killed it. Not to mention that during this time, it had to walk around still living in the pain of a penetrated festering crotch. So now the question is, what exactly caused this catastrophic wound? Well, it turns out that there's only one dinosaur from the time with a weapon which perfectly fits the fatal wound, and that is the Stegosaurus. As you know, each one of these came with a built-in thagmizer, in other words, the spiky thing at the end of their tail, which was composed of bone and had wickedly sharp points.

And when you combine sharp points with speed and power, let's just say you get a lot of pain, with the current idea being that the unfortunate Allosaurus tried its luck at taking down a stegosaurus, which clearly ended horribly. represents perhaps the first documented case of call an ambulance, but not for me. And this wasn't the only Mesozoic fossil we know of that captures the essence of this meme. As a few million years later, during the early Cretaceous, it happened again, this time in prehistoric China, and that involved a dinosaur and a mammal, a matchup you wouldn't expect to see often and not want you to imagine the mammal winning.

The underdog in question was the Repenomammus, a kind of go-be-condaunted that superficially looked like a mix between an opossum and badger, and was similar in size too, making them actually one of the larger mammals you could find during the Mesozoic. And they were also one of the more feisty ones, as if you opened up their mouths, you'd be met with some pretty sharp and long teeth that were designed to pierce and sheer flesh, indicating a healthy diet of meat. And apparently, meat can mean dinosaurs too, as paleontologists think it was the attacker in this scenario, not the defender, with that title going to Satakosaurus, a kind of small bipedal serotops, with a fairly sturdy and bony head.

Researchers reckon the ripana mammus had been in the midst of trying to dispatch this dinosaur, given that its claws were tightly gripping both the head and lower body of the satacosaurus, while its teeth were firmly sunk into the dinosaur's ribs, and done so with enough power that two of the ribs had broken loose from the rest, suggesting that this dinosaur wasn't too far from becoming dinner.

However, this predation attempt turned out to be a major failure, a poorly timed one at that, as during this whole thing, a large volcanic eruption was ongoing around them, evidenced by the fact that they were buried in volcanic debris, killing them instantly and also explaining how they were fossilized in a fighting position. The craziest part of all of this is that the attacking mammal was three times smaller than the dinosaur, leading some to wonder why it went after such a large animal. And the answer is potentially given by other panamamaic specimens,

who were found with the same kind of dinosaur inside their stomachs, suggesting that maybe they were specialized dino killers, not just occasional high-risk gamblers. Now, being a dinosaur and getting bullied by mammals of all things, must have been difficult, but not quite as difficult as having been a prehistoric sea cow. These guys as a group are still around, yet they used to be much more plentiful, and during the myocene, you could find multiple genera across the entire world, with one of them having been the Kulbrotherium, a 4-meter- or 12-foot-long genus, which makes it one of the bigger-known Sirenians.

Though, like its relatives, this creature had no clear defensive or offensive capabilities, resulting in some pretty horrific and frankly sad endings, as evidenced by a specimen that died in Venezuelan waters 20 million years ago. The individual was found with severe damage across its entire body that was so intense that it was deemed unusual even for a prehistoric animal, leading to more in-depth research which found that his wounds were composed of not one but two distinct kind of bite marks, one of which resembled having come from a crocodilian, and the other resembling a shark,

which is actually still swimming today, the tiger shark. Both predators had dealt a great deal of damage, and each seemed to have targeted different parts of the body, with a crock having focused on the head, while the shark administered sporadic bites along the post-cranial portion. Originally, paleontologists reckoned that the ancient dugong had to have been dead by the time the predators made their assault, implying a scavenging event. However, the nature of the tooth marks revealed that in reality it was probably much more violent and lively than first thought. This revelation was made by mainly analyzing the crox bites, which showed that it first attacked the snout of the Cyrenian by latching its jaws around its head and clamping down so hard that it even penetrated bone, reflecting a clear attempt to cut off the Coolbertherium's airflow and thus drown it.

And as you might know, you wouldn't bother with drowning a dead animal, meaning this crock attacked a very much alive scene. which given its size was no easy task. And based on the measurements of the teeth marks, paleontologists estimate that the crocodilian must have been even bigger, possibly six meters or 20 feet in length, which is on par with the longest recorded crocodiles of today. But paleontologists do not think that this guy was a crocodile, rather a giant extinct kind of Cayman or Gariel,

who also utilized death rolls, as other lower-down bites on the skull showed dragging and tearing marks indicative of violently rolling around. around. At some point, perhaps after the Cyrenian was weak enough, a nearby tiger shark, enticed by the commotion, approached for a quick meal, taking multiple bites out of the body, including an especially vicious chomp to the Cyrenean's neck, which left teeth literally lodge in the bone, which is how the shark's identity was ultimately made. Now, finding evidence of a prehistoric three-way is obviously quite rare, but it seems to have been a weirdly common

occurrence in ancient waters, as we know of another example that actually included all three combatants and started with something rather unassuming, a small Mesozoic fish, known as Leptolopedes. This rave fin de sushi was presumably just living out its normal day in the late Jurassic, swimming around the warm shallow waters off of what would one day become Germany, when at some point it attracted the unwanted attention of a pterosaur, the ramphorincus to be specific, which had a wingspan of about 2 meters or 6.5 feet, and had dozens of needle-like teeth perfect for gripping slippery fish. And this time, they were quite effective, as the fossil showed the fish snugly trapped within the throat of the pterosaur, who would have gotten away with it,

but hadn't been rudely interrupted by another fish, who was, of course, bigger, because as we know, the rule of the ocean is that there's always a bigger one out there. This new contender was an Aspirorincus, a small to medium-sized ray-finned fish that measured about 2.7 feet or 85 centimeters. So not huge, though it did seem to have one very large appetite, because it seemed to be trying to hunt the pterosaur itself, because as the pterosaur dipped down to snatch up the lepdilopides, the larger fish try to ambush it. But instead of successfully pulling it off, the fish misjudged its timing and speed, resulting in its large beak-like face, ramming into the pterosaur's wing as it swam up the strike, resulting in it, puncturing straight

through the wing's membrane. This collision occurred so fast and forcefully that the teeth of the Espido-Rankis actually became fused and entangled with the fibrous tissue found in the pterosaurs wing, creating an inescapable sticky and bloody biological mess. Locked in this helpless situation and with a fish still down the pterosaur's throat, the two started to fight and thrash around hoping to break free, and in the process they managed to cause further carnage, as the The pterosaurs already messed up wing became nauseatingly dislocated, and then the two presumably began to sink under the surface. We can only assume that the pterosaur died first, drowning within minutes, but eventually so did the fish, trapped within the body of its own victim, where it remains stuck to this day. Such a vivid and gruesome fossil makes me quite happy to live in the present and not be a Jurassic terosaur or fish.

But somehow, this is not even the most bloody prehistoric fight we know of, as that award would like to live. likely go to one of the most famous fossil specimens of all time, the fighting dinosaurs. Over half a century old, this amazing fossil came out of the Juductive Formation of Mongolia, and depicts a protocerotops and velociraptor trapped in a bitter brawl, likely started by the Velociraptor's stomach. In the fossil, the velociraptor has its left hand scratching the serotopsid skull, while its feet and sickle claws were positioned by the neck and abdomen of the proto-seratops. Not a great look for the serotopsid. However, the Velociraptor wasn't doing a whole lot better, as its right arm was in the clutches

of the protoceratops beak and its body aligned underneath, indicating that it might have been power slammed onto the ground. As the two were thrashing upon the floor, researchers believe that with its one arm pinned, thereafter decided to utilize its legs and sickle claws to rip and destroy the protoceratops' vital neck and abdominal region, causing all sorts of problems to say the least. What happened after this is a bit blurry. The common theory is that this fight took place after a storm, and a nearby dune, destabilized by rain, ended up collapsing upon them mid-fight, and thus killing the two and preserving

them for millions of years. However, things got a bit interesting when researchers noticed that the protoceratops had some other wounds that could not be explained by the Velociraptor and seemed lethal in their own right, including a broken pectoral girdle and a forelim that had been torn off to the left, suggesting that maybe a dune had not by their downfall, and that instead, the two had managed to kill each other, leaving no victor, with the protocerotops having bled out thanks to the kickstrikes,

while the velociraptor was left trapped underneath the heavier protocerotops. Then, at some point, the two were partially scavenged, explaining the extra damage, before they were then entombed in some later burial event. Regardless, it most likely is impossible for us to ever tell exactly how this fight ended, but the importance of it remains, as it was some of the first derives, direct evidence we got which proved that dinosaurs could be predatorial and were not strict scavengers.

And one, much more recent fossil that possibly further proves this, also does so the dinosaur used to be the face of the scavenging debate, the king himself, the Tyrannosaurus rex. Specifically, a specimen located in the Hill Creek Formation back in 2006 showed us one of the most iconic matchups of all time in real life, a T-rex versus a triceratops horridist. who were found entangled in a tomb of sandstone dated a 67 million years ago. And what's so amazing about this particular find was not only that they seemed to be fighting, but that both combatants are among the best-preserved fossils

for their respective species, with the T-Rex actually being the only known fully complete Tyrannosaurus, and even containing outlines of internal organs, its stomach content, and proteins. Meanwhile, the triceratops, despite not being perfect, was still largely preserved, and so were its and the Tyrannosaurus's wounds. It's fair to say that both were pretty banged up,

but surprisingly, it was the tyrant lizard king who took most of the damage, having had a cracked skull, broken fingers, and a mouth full of mostly broken teeth. The Triceratops, on the other hand, seemed to be suffering from some pretty ferocious bite marks, as the teeth from the Tyrannosaurus were found lodged in its spine. Having a couple of animals buried next to each other, one herbivore, one predator, and each bearing wounds is a pretty clear indication of a battle. But there is one thing that perplexes researchers, and makes them wonder if this fossil was just a pure

coincidence. And that's their sizes. You see, the triceratops involved was a fully grown adult that would have weighed multiple tons, yet the T-Rex wasn't even mature, and is thought to have been in its adolescence, being many times smaller than the T-seratops. Therefore, it deciding to attack the triceratops is rather dubious at best. This led to the notion that the two possibly just happen to be fossilized next to each other, each dying in their own separate way. But the nature of their wounds are just too coincidental to gloss over and has led to some new hypotheses which still involve fighting. The first is that the Tyrannosaurus wasn't alone, an attack on the triceratops was an effort by multiple T-rexes, as there is some partial evidence for cooperation in small groups among

Tyrannosaurus. The second, and more receptive of the ideas, is that it wasn't actually the T-Rex that attacked, but rather the grumpy T-Seratops who might have felt disturbed by its presence, or maybe the T-Rex got a bit too close, not to mention that there could have been young around as well. We see similar behavior in elephants and rhinos today, and this would explain why a small T-Rex was found entangled in battle with a much larger herbivore. Now, what neither theory explains is how they both managed to die at the same time, with the only real guess, being the that some sort of landslide got them, or that they were suddenly immersed in water and drowned, which could explain why the T-Rex seems to be doing the classic death-thrope hose seen in certain

dinosaurs. Seeing two of the most famous dinosaurs in action is pretty awesome, and quite unfair for other specimens to compete with. But we do know of one that still takes the cake when it comes to preservation, as it involves amber, more precisely, 100 million-year-old amber. Inside this golden ball, two worker ants remain frozen in a brawl. where one is sinking its pincers into the other's head. Not very nice. But because they are ants, it's not the most exciting find. But what is fascinating is that it's the oldest evidence we have for warring ants,

as the two belligerents are actually different species, suggesting that for at least the last 100 million years, ants have been duking it out. And another Cretaceous dated amber piece, this time showing a termite and an ant worker within arm's reach of one another, is also led to the assumption that termites and ants might still be resolving a war older than the Sinozoic itself, and also, indirectly making ants, the original harbingers of death. And for some reason, it seems that during the late Cretaceous,

Amber seemed to be at war with life as well, as there is yet another third Cretaceous amber fossil from a Burmese mine that contains a juvenile spider attempting to make a meal out of a tiny parasitic wasp, though, obviously, and sadly, it never quite got to it. Again, not the most crazy find, but it does have its own unique achievement. Being the only one. the only fossil ever discovered, which shows a spider attacking prey in its own web. Pretty nifty. And don't stress, if you want to battle with combatants much more terrifying, you don't even have to leave the Mesozoic.

As the discovered Triassic specimen, dated the 210 million years ago, represents one of the oldest signs of predation, and it involves two crazy fighters, a Rauysukian and a Phytosaur. Both animals were very crock-like, and the Rauysukian are actually ancestral to them, the phytosaurs and canny similarities is actually a result of convergent evolution. Each one of them were usually the apex predators in their environment, with the Rauysukians being adapted for terrestrial life and the phytosaurs adapted for semi-aquatic one. Typically, paleontologists thought that each stuck to their own respective kingdoms, but a located Rauysukian femur showed that hostilities could and did arise. Based on the size of the bone, paleontologists think that it

came from 8 meter or 26-foot-long Rauwesucyan, pretty big. And yet the femur was riddled with bite marks, and even had some teeth lodged into it. These teeth and the marks both matched those found in the phytosaur, not exactly who'd expect to be attacking a Rwisukian, especially since the marks indicate a 6-meter or 19.6-foot-long phytosaur, quite a bit smaller than the victim. And it gets even weirder, as some of the bite marks in the femur had fully healed, while others weren't healed at all, indicating that this Rwisukian had survived an initial attack, and then succumbed to a later fatal one, with both attackers having been phytosaurs, and leading to the idea that this Rauysukian may have been a victim of predation. Now, during the Triassic, because there were so many predators, it has been long thought that in some environments,

predators would actually start to hunt other predators. But you wouldn't just expect a large Rorysukian to be caught up in this. And one explanation is, is that like animals crossing rivers today, in certain times, parts of the world, waters back then were filled with the giant hungry phytosaurs, who had the home advantage of being in water, allowing them to then tackle prey much larger than normal. This could also be why the bites were found in the back area, opposed to the front, demonstrating an ambush attack that the Rui-Sukian was not expecting. I think we can conclude that it must have been pretty stressful living in a time where there

are more predators than herbivores, and just one more reason why the present is pretty chill. Thanks for watching, and until next time. There's a new way to Sweet Green. Meat, wraps, handheld, hearty, and made for life on the moon. With bold, chef-crafted flavors, fresh ingredients, and over 40 grams of protein, they're built to satisfy without slowing you down. Try wraps today in the app or at order.com, available at all participating locations. On extinct zoo.