ExtinctZoo - The Strangest Creatures From Earth's Strangest Time

Episode Date: July 19, 2026

Everyone has that certain time in their life, where they are just trying things out and experimenting, and perhaps those things are not exactly the most logical or flattering. And just like how we have these phases, earth has had them too, with one of its phase being so strange it single handedly created a plethora of the strangest creatures to ever walk, swim, or fly on this earth.

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The Hulu original series Furious is coming to Disney Plus, starring Emmy Rossum. Furious follows FBI agent Alice Black on the hunt for a mysterious and calculating serial killer. Both walk their own paths toward justice, and as their lives start to intertwine, the line between right and wrong begins to blur. Don't miss the three-episode premiere of the Hulu original series Furious on July 27th, only on Hulu on Disney Plus. Just like a teenager, the Earth has been through many phases in its life. Some phases are pretty normal, others I honestly wouldn't mind bringing back, but then a few just leave my head hurting, as nothing seems to make sense.

And of all the phases that Earth has tried out, one of the strangest, if not the strangest, has to be the Triassic period. Now, it's hard to say exactly why this time was so weird, but it might have had a little something to do with the fact that it directly followed the worst extinction event in Earth's entire history, the Great Dying, which killed over 95% of the time, life and served as an evolutionary reset allowing for a whole host of wacky life to emerge. Some of these strange animals you might have heard it before, but it got me thinking, of all

the odd creatures to emerge during this questionable time in Earth's history, which exactly were the weirdest. In other words, what are the strangest animals from the planet's strangest time period? And as you'll come to find out, the answer reaches far and low, as from the seas to the lands in the sky of the Triassic, Mother Nature was kicking up some real strange creations. And one of them, which larked below the waves, is a group of marine reptiles that has been largely overshadowed by the Ictheasors and Pleasiosaurus, but were arguably more interesting than both, in a sense. And these were the Hupusukians. First appearing in the early days of the Triassic, some 248 million years ago, this was a group of now extinct diapestate reptiles,

and were very close related to the ichthyosaurs, belonging in fact to the same clade, but they were still distinctively different, and much weirder, so much so, actually, that a general characteristic for them is simply being unusual, seeing that they essentially look like evolution created Mr. Potato Head from whatever parts it could find. Specifically, Hoopisukians often had numerous traits that didn't seem to fit and traditionally did not go together. For example, each tended to possess an elongated fusiform body and long tail, but then would also have a more robust and wide midsection, as well as very large, relatively speaking, paddle-like limbs, giving them appearances that didn't seem like would work at all. And that's all before you factor in,

they're extremely bizarre schools that greatly varied across the genera. Takeupusukas, for instance, which, despite being pretty small, had a jaw and mouth that resembled those seen in filter-feeding whales, suggesting a similar lifestyle, just on a obviously much smaller scale. Then you had the arid morhippus, too, which straight up had a face resembling that of a platypus, perhaps designed to catch and munch on small, soft-bodied invertebrates such as shrimps and worms, within shallow, muddy lagoons, and tropical waters, as this odd structure on its face was possibly filled with receptors allowing it to navigate by touch.

But of course, that's not all, because this strange creature also possessed plates along its back like a stegosaurus. Yeah, a dinosaur. And in case anyone skipped physics here, these would definitely not have helped it swim any faster, being not exactly great for hydrodynamics. But the current going hypothesis is that they sported these plates for structural rigidity for their body. While then in the water, they could have possibly aided imboiency. Now, I will say, the Eric Morheapis was truly one of a kind of a case.

even for this group, who in general tended to look a bit more like the Hoopisukas. But honestly, who really knows? There could be plenty of other weirdos out there, is beyond knowing they're estranged, we don't actually have that many fossils from them, and it seems that they exclusively lived in shallow waters, off and along the coast of what would one day become China. And because they didn't exactly end up lasting that long either

with an existence duration of just one million years, so extremely short for an order, their odd features could more just be a reflection that their design really wasn't that good. And even one scientist who studied the creature made remark that they wouldn't stand a chance in the modern world, let alone other prehistoric times which had a much more vicarious water system, let's say. But to be honest, seeing one would be pretty cool. And another very bizarre aquatic-ish group that I wouldn't mind seeing either were the somewhat better known Tanistrophieds. You may recognize this name based on one of my older videos where I talked about the Tanistrophius,

the type genus and the most famous of the bunch, yet in reality this guy was just one member of the larger Tanistrophiida family. Obviously, like the Hupusukians, they too are extinct, but they enjoyed a much longer rain, one that lasted from roughly 247 to 201 million years ago. So most of the Triassic period. They were also limited to not just one country, with them instead being found over much of the planet, across multiple countries and continents, which was partially thanks to the presence of the supercontinent of Pangaea. In general, these guys look a bit like reptilian giraffes, as they were generally distinguished

by an extremely long neck and shorter body. Well then the legs tended to be quite short, and the tail slightly longer, yet still short compared to their prominent necks. However, how much they exactly resembled the giraffe, widely varied, as these guys were quite a diverse bunch, as on top of how long their necks were proportionally, they also greatly differed in size, with some being tiny, and others like the Tannistrophius being on par with the size of an actual giraffe. They were incredibly ecologically diverse as well.

In fact, when I first described them, I said aquatic-ish. And the reason for that is that some of them were adapted for water life, but then others were adapted to life on land, showing differences in the structure of their tails and limbs. So unsurprisingly, because of this, some of their skeletal arrangements differed, added their diets, with small terrestrial genera like the Macrocnemus, likely being some kind of insectivore that utilized sharp conical teeth for catching prey. While then the Tannistrophius also had sharp conical teeth, however, it primarily fed on fish, possibly using the strange neck of it like a fishing rod. And speaking of the Tanistrophius, this weird animal that is the most recognizable of the bunch

may have also been able to bridge the gap between water and land. No pun intended. With some of its anatomical features, suggesting the capability of both swimming extensively and watering onto dry ground if need be. And you would think that having the ability to walk on land could have been quite the nice experience, you know, to essentially get away from all that aquatic weirdness. Yet don't be mistaken because the Triassic's bizarreness only continued past the water. Well past, with the land even giving the water or run for its mind. In one group that did this well, maybe too well, were the archaesora forms, the same huge collative diapestate reptiles that has given us things like the dinosaurs, crocodiles, terrosaurs,

and more. And yes, I know you already know these groups had some weirdos, but during the Triassic, archoforms did not appear as we usually imagine them. And for the most part, Triassic non-dinosaur archosaurs were pretty much just four-legged carnivores that typically had some pretty mean-looking heads. With that said, a few did stick out for being extra, extra odd, including one of the more obscure families of Arcasort reforms, their protopagnosia. This group was a very exclusive one, let's say, as they only showed up during the Le Triassic

about 229 million years ago, and as far as we know, only contained two genera, just two. And the false material between them isn't even that abundant, so to say this group is not well understood is putting it lightly. And yet we know for a fact they were extremely unusual, because we are very much. While they have a standard four-legged pack, you could say, they also had a skull feature, which was very unique, and really something that is only known to just one other group of animal that wouldn't be alive for another 100 million years plus.

And that would be the Pachycephalosauria. And in case you don't know, these guys, which are dinosaurs, are well known for having possessed a few members that had dome-like structures on their heads. And just like those domes, it seems that the protopognosia possessed a similar feature. Specifically, the two known genera, Kranasora, and triopticus possessed five rounded protuberances of bones

on their head, with one being located in the frontal bone, while then two pairs sat behind the post-orbital and pridal bones. These growths formed a thick shelf that went outwards and over the rear end of the skull, creating a structure remarkably similar to, the you guessed it, Pachycephalosaur. Studies have also found that these protuberances each had different bone layers to them,

with the innermost layer being the densest, the middle being spongy and filled with blood vessels, and the closest one to the surface, having the least dense bone. Now obviously, consider during their rarity, having a domed skull already makes these two in their later dinosaur counterparts pretty uncanny in terms of resemblance. Yet the odd similarities did not stop here, as the protopagnosia also possessed large eye sockets that were surrounded by mineralized cartilage,

a characteristic only seen elsewhere, and again, you guessed it, the Pachycephalosaurs, suggesting that this triassic group were visually oriented animals. But we do have to remember, this was not a dinosaur, and not even that close related to one either. In one area where this difference may have shown up in was their diet. as other non-dinosaur archosaurs from the time were almost exclusively carnivores, and some believe, understandably, that the protopagnosia was as well, whereas on the flip side, the Pachycephalosaurus are mainly herbivorous, and not to mention that the latter is bipedal, and the protopinoscosia were quadrupeds.

And this makes for a very interesting dilemma, because if it does turn out that they ate meat, it would make them the first dome-headed known carnivores, and therefore could open up a whole new way of hunting that we didn't think was possible, one where they essentially use their thickened skulls to bash prey to death or throw them off balance before delivering fatal bites. But here's the thing, though, we don't actually have any teeth material from these guys. So we really can't say for sure if they're predators.

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Travel back in time with us and actually travel with us at Westjet.com slash 30 years. As a sign that there were in fact just a really highly strange and derived early Arcosaur who were herbivorous, breaking from the traditional mold at the time. And for the sake of all their life at the time, let's hope so, as they weren't exactly small critters

like the hoopasukia, with fragmentary remains suggesting that the larger genus, triopictus, could grow to be up to 10 feet long. So, uh, herbovolvvvvvvvvv, or not, my doubt you're winning a fight with one of these guys. And the protopagnosia were not the only family of highly unusual archaosaurs out there. There was, in fact, a lot more. And one group that has recently been turning some heads for producing a trove of oddities

is an obscure archaosaur form clade known as the Alicotosaurus. Evolving some time during the Middle Triassic, about 247 million years ago, the Alicotasoria were a clade of reptiles known from numerous continents, with bones being found in Asia, Africa, North America, and Europe. They're not that old of a group. Well, not in the real oldness, but in the sense that paleontologically they were only defined and described back in 2015, with their specific traits being very nuanced anatomical features that wouldn't mean much to the average person, like a wrinkled side surface in the orbital

border of their frontal bones. So not a lot to go off of. It doesn't really give you a good idea on what they looked like. But truthfully, even without that wrinkle, get it, it's hard to sum them up in general, as they were exceedingly diverse with each having their very own unique features, leading them producing not one, but a multitude of strange entities. And one of the better-known families of the Al-Qodosauria were the Xendosauridae, a terrestrial bunch of robust quadrupeds, distinguished by a chunky midsection, small heads, but then raised

in longer necks, given them an appearance about akin to old, inaccurate reconstructions of dinosaurs. Interestingly, despite the general characteristics that unite them, some of these creatures evolved to be carnivores, like the medium-bodied quarkasukas, while then others like the the Shringosaurus were large, strict herbivores that lived a lot like Sarapodomorph dinosaurs, spending their days browsing vegetation. And what made the Shringosaurus extra weird in particular was that it was also a horned creature, a bit similar to dinosaurs like Triceratops, which it obviously

wasn't related to in the slightest. And the researchers have discovered the presence of two long curving brow horns that had a rough, grooved-like texture to them, reflecting a keratinous sheath in life, that would have made them in fact longer than was seen in fossil reconstructions. However, unlike the serotopsids, it's not believed that these horns were used for combat or protection, as they did not extend out long enough, with the main idea being that they're primarily used for individual identification or mating rituals, because obviously a good pair of horns makes someone quite horny, if you will, pun intended. Now, moving away from the Azendosauridae, who would survive into the late Triassic,

another odd group of Alicotosaurus you could find in this time were the trilophosaurus, a group that shared some general resemblance, but were ultimately completely different, as there were best described as having been prehistoric iguanas gone wrong. And what I mean by gone wrong iguanas is that superficially a lot of them looked like an overgrown iguana, just with some very strange proportions, as seen with the type genus, the trilophosaurus, a decently sized herbivore that honestly could pass for the ancestor to iguanas, having somewhat similar proportions and a skull shape that superficially shared to some semblance. An even more striking example, though, was late Triassic spinusucous, which was a herbivore as well, but different in that it had

elongated neural spines in the signs of a dorsal crest similar to what's seen in living iguanas. Well, then it also might have had a skin flap in the front of its neck as well. Even its claws were similar to that of extant lizards. Not to mention that its size was also pretty much the same as well, just being on average slightly larger. But to reiterate, this was not an iguana, duh, or a dinosaur for that matter. But then taking a step away from getting more iguana-like, but moving further up in the weirdness scale, you also had the Canadian Teraturpeton, which are just kind of hard to characterized, period. This large cat-sized genus was a bit of a mashup, having been made of

varying unique features, literally not seen anywhere else in its order. Now the hardest thing to ignore about it was in arguably the jaw, which was so unique that some people might think this guy was in a total separate family of its own, as the jaw was elongated, narrow, and at the front from the toothless beak, a bit reminiscent of that of a bird. While then at the very back of the jaw, it was very much not toothless, being filled with both sharp teeth and those that were shaped like gouges and would have been interlocking. And oddly enough, the oddness did not end here, as it also possessed large nostrils and a fused skull, which for a perspective is actually designed somewhat close to what's seen

in certain marine reptiles. And yet, this guy was fully terrestrial. And not only was it fully terrestrial, it really seemed to love Mother Earth, as it had unusually large and well-developed feet that were lined with sharp claws, highlighting that it may have in life been a burrower. And so this mix of terrestrial and somewhat aquatic reminiscent. and features have left a lot of people just confused. And as such, we're not exactly sure how this thing lived, wondering if it's kind of oscillating

between if it was just a herbivore like most of its relatives, or if it perhaps had a unique lifestyle of creating burrows along waterways from which it would then use its beak to fish. I don't know, and who does? All I know is that this thing was weird, which makes me like it even more. But here's the thing. Somehow, even with the Treloff Astor is considered, the Alkotosauria as a whole may have gotten and weirder. Because in recent years, new studies have suggested that this group was far more expansive than one's thought, possibly encompassing animals that expanded past the ground,

like the Drapanosaurs, who traded life on the floor for life in the trees. Superficially, this family resembled primitive lizards, but they had also taken a page from monkeys, or perhaps from us, as there were hands and feet that evolved grasping in opposable digits, and then also a prehensile tale, which is hopefully not like us, resulting in them being highly derived of tree-dwelling creatures that were plenty in the prehistoric forests from the middle to late Triassic, being known extensively across both North America and Europe. And given their hands and feet, this group has often been nicknamed the monkey lizards. But then, in yet another twist, they also had some features from a different living kind of

animal, birds, where their skulls taking on a similar form, with a few even evolving toothless beaks as well. In fact, their schools are so much alike that at birds that when they were first discovered, certain paleontologists might have been accidentally attributing their schools. schools to what they thought were the first birds to ever exist. And yes, we now know they weren't early birds, but they did like trees just as much. Seeing that they were mostly arboreal animals, it would have been in the constant bug patrol, having had an insectivorous diet comprised of very small insects.

It's at their largest, they were still less than two rulers long. And that would be considered, by the way, a big Drapanosaur. Now, shocker alert, the issue of not knowing for sure if a traumatic family belongs to one or another is actually not a rare issue, with, given just how one, weird each Triassic animal seems to be, the problem of categorizing them becomes that much more confusing. And this problem is actually also seen in an earlier mentioned group, the Tannistrophied, because as it turns out, it may be them who gave rise to another wacky experiment that did not just shun the water, but was literally trying to escape the ground as well, the Shara of Iptidae.

Appearing in the middle Triassic-Virasia, this somewhat obscure and poorly understood group were among the first vertebrates to obtain flight. Yet they were doing it in a way. that had never been seen and has not been seen since either, even though obviously many vertebrates would go into achieve gliding capabilities or flight. Now as is pretty standard, the Sharavipter rigidae had achieved some degree of flight through the evolution of wing-like membranes. However, instead of putting their wing points, so to speak, into their arms or even their ribs like the contemporary Vigelta Swords did, they invested their points almost exclusively into

their legs, which would ultimately become their wings, forming a shape of a delta wave. wing jet. So yeah, highly unusual to say the least, but for the time it did seem to work, as we do think they were capable of gliding from tree to tree, which is very useful especially when considering their tiny sizes, as it would have allowed them to escape from predators, travel safely in a forested habitat, avoid the lava, and catch prey, which was likely small flying insects, including early beetles, flies, and crickets. There are relatively large wings then between their elongated hind legs and the tail.

Well then, to a far lesser degree, they also have some wing membranes on the reduced arms as as well that might have helped control their flight path while airborne. And if you're interested about learning more about the first flying animals to ever exist, not just these ones, go take a look at my video here. Anyways, as you can see, no matter where you went to the Triassic, strangeness just seemed to follow. But just as quickly as it came on, so did it end. As every group I mentioned in this video evolved during the Triassic and died during the Triassic as well. None made it through.

But don't do fret, because these are only a handful of the wacky animals that made the Triassic what it was. You can't forget about the better known turtle-like placodonts, the harmonica-faced atopodontas, and all the Osseuskians, aotosaurus, phytosaurs, etc., that made this time just one big fever trip. And if you want a part two about more Triassic oddities, or really Audities or the Triassic in general, please show this video some love and drop a like. Thanks for watching, and until next time, on Extinct Zoo. If you want a $3,000 a month payday for life, what would you feel free to do? Maybe take a long weekend, every weekend, or try a bunch of new hobbies. Would you feel free to upgrade and listen ad-free?

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