ExtinctZoo - When Prey Became Scarier Than Predators

Episode Date: June 27, 2026

We always talk about the big bad predators of old, namely carnivorous dinosaurs, but we don't give enough flowers to the herbivorous dinosaurs that went far and beyond the norm, to turn into killing machines of their own (in a sense).

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Spotify Advertising. You're among fans. It's usually agreed upon that being the predator is a far better deal than being the prey. And this is something that we generally see as a rule, not just now, but also when you travel back in time and take a peek at various prehistoric groups of animals. Mammals, birds, fish, you name it. It seems like it's the predators that are always on top and the creatures you really don't want to mess with. Of course, though, this does make some practical sense as predators must evolve to be deadlier in order to eat and defend their territories. Or they simply would stop to exist. In one group we see this rule in full power is the dinosaurs.

As when people think of the mightiest or deadliest of all prehistoric predators, we usually do think of this iconic bunch, especially if you limit the options to land only. Sorry, Meg. And across their reign, we saw the evolution of raptors, Tyrannosaurs, carcoredontosaurus, spina soids, and many more, with each group cooking up some pretty monstrous creations, including the largest predators to ever walk.

However, here's the thing. As the predatory dinosaurs were getting deadlier, so were the herbivorous counterparts, in their own ways. Because, I mean, who wants to get eaten without putting up a fight? And thus, through the age of dinosaurs, we've seen an epic arms race develop between both sides, giving rise to the likes of serotopsids with their deadly horns, stegosaurs with their spiked tails, saropods with their immense size, and the list goes on. And while these groups as a whole are fearsome and metal, the predators that lived alongside them still efficiently kept up, retaining the ability to hide.

hunt these lot to the very end. Although, with that said, once in a blue moon, a herbivorous dinosaur had come along that was simply too much to handle and went against the usual rules, sticking out to monks their own kind like some sort of biological terminator, becoming in some ways even more metal and deadly than the predators which roamed alongside them, and even dreamt to eat them. And one of the more premier examples of this has to do with an already pretty overpowered group, the saropods. On average, these guys are arguably already. ready the hardest of any dinosaur to take out, thanks to their immense size, which in many cases alone was enough, because who's stupid to take on animals that could be heavier than a freaking

tank? And thanks to their size, their bodies themselves could be wielded as weapons, with the feet being crushers, necks of battering ram, and in some cases, their tails in industrial whip, as seen, for example, in the dipoticus, with some studies estimating that they could be swung fast enough to break the speed of sound. And that is crazy and all, but there was a sauropod that things to a whole other level, becoming something of a hybrid between a sauropod and ankylosaur, which is not a great combo for the predators, let's say. And it ended up evolving a club tale of all things. And its name was Shunosaurus. 161 to 157 million years ago, the late Jurassic was in full swing. And while you may know a lot about North America during this time, in the infamous Morrison formation,

there was a lot going on around the world, too, especially in China. We're in light of its much closer proximity to North America than now, it too had become a bit like the Morse formation, meaning lots of ornithicians and predators, with up the 12 carnivorous theropods alone being found in singular environments, such as the Shashi Miao formation. These carnivores greatly ranged in size, with numerous being smaller and medium-sized, well then there were a few giants such as the Cyniraptor and the Yangtuanosaurus, two dinosaurs capable of being over one ton, and in the case of the latter, it was even possible for it to reach an excess of three tons.

Understandably, these predators put immense pressure on their herbivores, whilst a large number of stegosaurus and saropods in the lands then went on to create their own competition amongst themselves. And thus, in conclusion, you had to be incredibly tough to survive. And the Shunasaurus achieved this in its very own unique way. You see, it wasn't the biggest sarapot around, with individuals weighing about three tons and measuring 11 meters or 36 feet long, but where it was able to take things to a whole other level was, like I said, at the end of its long, muscular tail. You see, just like certain anchylosaurs, this sarapod had unlocked the ability to evolve a full-on wrecking ball, having a big whole chunk of bony material that sat at the end of it, forming a club that was about the size of your entire head. And let me tell you, this wasn't just some simple, smooth club either. Because taking a page out of the stegasaur book, the Shunosaurus had also developed spikes on these clubs

that were formed by cone-shaped osteoderms, which sat on top of the structure, with each spike measuring at least two inches or five centimeters, and were possibly longer in life, as fossils not only wear, but also because these spikes might have been covered in cratinous sheaths. And so essentially given the Sarapod a spiked club, the former one-of-a-kind weapon. And so, in conjunction with its relatively long tail, this beast would have been able to whip this weapon around with horrifying speeds, generating more than enough energy to pulverize the bones of large predators, while the spikes then would have concentrated the forces, creating oversized holes in anything

unlucky enough, or dumb enough, to get in the way of one of these. these guys. And given their height, strikes would not have just meant a sore leg, rather a lethal shot to the torso, neck, or head that would have cracked open like a coconut. But let's just say there would not be any coconut water coming out, more of a Shirley Temple. Additionally, in another rejection of the normal rules, the Shunosaurus had a shorter neck, meaning that it did not graze higher trees like its related kin, but instead grazed upon low-down trees and plants, which were typically coarser. And this fact has led to a possible backup weapon, As compared to other saropods, its teeth were unique in robustness and shape,

almost forming the same shape as a garden shear, allowing it to obviously snip off tough plants, but then also perhaps giving it the ability to administer painful love bites when needed. Because for analogy's sake, while garden shears are designed for plants, they can deal some nasty damage to flesh too, and this was only further backed by its skull shape, which tended to be compact, broad, shortened, and deep. Meaning, they could take a surprising amount of stress when clamping down, which could be used to bite through copious amounts of thick plant material, or perhaps again, bite through another type of material.

Yet with that said, given that they had their highly effective and long tails that can maneuver around large parts of their body, I think it's safe to say that they usually just defaulted to, well, their tail. And clearly this built-in weapon worked quite nicely for the sarapod, as the Shunosaurus survived for millions of years in an environment where toughness was a baseline requirement, not an exception. Yet, I dare say, that not even a club-tailed sarapod, is as metal as another herbivorous dinosaur that happened to be alive at the exact same time,

only living in a different part of the world, living in a place which would one day become Morocco, the Spike Amelis. Now this was a medium-sized dinosaur that was one of the earlier Encalisorians that we are aware of. The Encalisors, as you know, was a pretty unusual group in general already, being known for their exotic and sometimes extensive armor, as well as, of course, their tails, which can be clubbed or take on various other deadly shapes. And of all the members, you very likely know the Enkilosaurus, a possibly eight-toned armor tank with a wickly large club to match. And while the spike gomelis was related to this absolute icon, it did not have a club. Instead, this dinosaur is something you'd expect to see in a stegasaur.

In other words, a phagamizer-like structure. You see, at the end of its tail, it possessed ossified tendons, as well as hardened bone, which was elongated and sharpened, forming multiple spike-like objects, that in turn formed a very wicked tail weapon. Now, an Enchylosaur, with a spike tail is already unique and metal, but here's the thing. The spike in Mellus had more spikes than just the ones on his tail. In fact, basnar-covered material, it seems that the entire body was likely covered in these spikes, creating an armored Enchalosaur that was also like an oversized porcupine in some ways. And what was even weirder is that on top of having dozens of sharp spikes, said spikes also highly varied in size.

Some were smaller, relatively speaking, that is, while the largest and most complete ones were about 87 centimeters or 34 inches long, so the length of nearly three rulers stacked together. And together, these spikes on his bodies made the spike in mellas one of the most interesting dinosaurs to have ever lived, and a herbivore that would be exceedingly hard for predator to take down. I mean, where exactly are you going to bite this thing? Not to mention that during any predation attempt, it would likely be using its tail too, making attacks from any direction quite possible. And so really, when you add all this together, you pretty much get an animal that you could only kill if you tip it over and that would be quite challenging in itself not only because it would

probably do its best to prevent this but also because it was fairly heavy for its visual size weighing about two tons thanks to its numerous spikes and the armor underneath which only gave it that much more defense on top of it and suffice to say this overkill level of self-defense no pun intended did help to keep the spike in melus safe from hungry mouths as within its environment we know that various megalosaurids were present while then the waterways are infested with multiple kinds of crocodile morphs And yet, even with this challenging environment, our spiky boy prevailed for over 7 million years. And what's interesting is that, as of now, the spike mouse is actually the oldest known definitively named Encalisor. And as such, it was clearly a big part of Encalisor evolution, being on top of this, the oldest verified known member with a tail weapon.

And thus, not only that its design keep it safe, but it was also probably a large reason when chalosaurs were able to get a better foot in the door, and further evolve in a world already filled with threats and competition. And their strange design proved so effective that, like I said, they didn't really need overall size to scare off predators, even though from a width and length standpoint, they weren't exactly that big. And we do see this with yet another animal that also went the spiky route instead of size, and in some ways took things to an even further level than spike amalice, essentially becoming a full-fledged, real-life porcupine dinosaur. And this would be the how long.

Keeping in line with apparent trend, this odd dinosaur lived in Mesozozozoic China during the early Cretaceous period, some 125 million years ago. It was an ornithician that was some type of hader sorroid, and though it wasn't closely related, it did share somewhat of a resemblance with an iguanodon in general, as along with a similar superficial shape, it also had this elongated, iconic spiked thumbs that are thought to have possibly operated like stiletto weapons, being able to puncture and slice things. But here's the thing, how long was very much unlikely the iguanodon when it came to size, for it was a smaller dino. Now this said, the only nearly complete specimen we have, is just a juvenile, so we can't say for sure how big they grew, but based on related dinosaurs

in the area, it's believed that adults were about half the length of an iguanodon, and much lighter. Still though, this more diminutive size, in addition to the thumbs, would have let it protect itself for most of the predators in its environments, which included the Caristadera and smaller tyranosaurs like the D. Long and Raptorax, plus various Trudonts and Dremasors. But then there were larger predators, like the U. Tyrannus, which definitely grew to a a lethal size for the how long, reaching up to nine meters, or nearly 30 feet, and weighing over one ton. And so at this size, even an adult how long would have been a prime target for the U-Tyrannis. But to get around this rather tricky, life-threatening ordeal, the

How Long developed structures never seen before in a dinosaur, and that would be quills. To be exact, when the original specimen was unearthed, paleontologists noted that there were hollow, keratinous spines that covered its entire body, and were preserved down to the nuclear level. And these things highly differed from the proto-feathers seen in theropods and spines of living squawmates, instead showing a high similarity to the quills seen in modern porcupines, leading to the conclusion that this was in fact a quill dinosaur. And I don't think I need to tell you that quills have been quite effective for porcupines, allowing them to be rather safe from predators that would otherwise have a field day with them. And paleontologists think this was a similar case with the how long,

where the quills would act as a defensive shield against any sharp teeth looking for a bite. And just like the unrelated, modern porcupines, the how longs quills varied in length and width, with the smallest ones being rather short and narrow, while the largest were thickened and up to two inches long. But again, because of fossilization, in life, they were likely even longer. Now, there is one mystery about this oddball, though, and it's relating to the quills again. Because we only have juvenile specimens, and therefore paleontologists aren't 100% sure that adults actually retained the quills that they had while young. But if they did, it then also leads to another question,

of how long they grew and matured individuals. As if they did grow proportionally, then we could possibly be talking about an anithopod covered in hundreds, or perhaps even thousands, of knife-length quills, that would make just about any predation attempt on this dinosaur a rather self-destructive choice. And again, not to be the dead horse, but this is relating to an animal that wasn't exactly a giant by dinosaur standards.

However, as we see in the saropods, size was always a classic fallback that could do the trick. And while many non-sarpod dinosaurs were large as well, it was usually just the long necks, which were at the size that predators were fully deterred. Whereas on the flip side, if you got rid of the defenses of an incalosaurus or the spikes on a triceratops, you'd probably have seen them join the local buffet. This said, though, there was a subtle group of dinosaurs that actually, like the saropods, used size to their advantage.

However, unlike the former, this group didn't always use size, and it was really only a couple that pushed things to the absurd, becoming, in fact, largest dinosaurs of all of all of the same, all time that were not saropods. And this would be the hadrosaurs. On paper, your typical hadrosaur was not really, uh, let's say that metal compared to other groups. They did not have any noticeable weapons or armor, and they generally weighed between two to four tons, making them larger than the median dinosaur, but nothing too crazy. However, like I alluded to, a few would end up evolving into absolute giants, making them one of the last things a predator would dare to take on. And for many years, the prime example of this,

was the Shantangosaurus. And this guy also happens to be our first late Cotaceous animal in the video, existing within China, once more, about 77 million years ago. If you drew this creature on paper, it would look like a fairly normal hadosaur, having possessed a pretty standard body shape, with no clear distinguishing features that set it apart from other hatterosaurs within his tribe of the Amontasauri. Yet, if you were seeing an adult in person, you'd quickly realize this guy wasn't standard

by any hadrosaur means, as it was essentially a living, breathing, kaiju. Based off remains, it's estimated that these guys would have measured a whopping 56 feet or 17 meters from snout to tail, while then weighing up to 18 tons, and possibly more, and thus also making it even larger than the likes of the Tyrannosaurus wrecks, and also just in general, one of the largest animals on the entire continent at the time. And so undoubtedly, such immense size made as one hatterasaur you really did not want to mess with. And interestingly, just like horses, it's not that hatterosaurs might have kicked. Let me tell you, I don't think you're walking away from a kick from this guy. And honestly, a kick is not the only

thing you'd have to worry about. Because just this thing walking, let alone running, would sort of be like a moving freight train. And so understandably, for the most part, the vast majority of predators in the area can only dream of taking down an adult. Only the zoo chain Tyrannis, a Tyrannosaur, came anything close to its size, measuring about 10 meters or 33 feet in length, and weighing 5 metric tons. Yet even that is quite a bit smaller than the Shantongosaurus, so alone Zuchang Tyranus trying to take one down seems like a bit of a stretch and that's not even factoring in the fact that there is strong evidence and this haddrasaur roamed in groups improving obviously their collective defense and then on top of this guy in recent

years another hadrosaur that is seemingly turning out to be more and more of a freak when it comes to size was a fellow Edmontosaurine and actually the flagship member the Amontosaurus who also existed during the late Cretaceous but was instead found in North America in general the Amontasaurus is already a rather large haddersore measuring up to 12 meters or 39 feet and weighing multiple metric tons. So this is massive already, yet the Amundasaurus has also been known to yield some specimens that were straight-up freaks of nature, suggesting that they might have pushed this stat a bit more. Specifically, the largest fossils found suggest that giant adults could have hit 15 meters or 49 feet

and weighed up to nearly 16 metric tons, which, if the case, would be quite a non- insignificant size boost. And then on top of this, there is even one partial specimen where the tail alone, which is, by the way, actually the whole specimen, is over 7.5 meters or 25 feet long, which for perspective is almost twice the height of a giraffe. And again, that is just the tail. And this fossil is thought to have maybe belonged to an individual that weighed about 18 tons, so akin to that of the Shantongosaurus. And as much as I love the T-Rex, I don't think the king is trying to mess with something that big.

And perhaps now is a good time to also mention that the Amontosaurus and the Shantongosaurus's tail could have possibly been a secret weapon as well, as it seems that the tendons when their tails were heavily ossified, meaning tissue that is hardened and likely served as anchors for massive powerful muscles, something that would have made the tails a bit like a living brick wall, except a brick wall that could be swung. And something tells me that a massive rot and muscle, bone and flesh, almost twice the size of a giraffe, would deal quite some serious damage, even to large predators. And clearly this giant size boost seems to been a pretty opy move for the hadosaurs,

as giant hadosaurs were a thriving bunch all the way up to the KT extinction event. So, who knows what would have happened if they had survived and kept on evolving. Of course, while all these herbivores are amazing, one cannot forget to pay homage to the Mount Rushmore of metal herbivorous dinosaurs, and that would undoubtedly be the Triceratops, Encalisaurus, and Stegosaurus. Interestingly, all three of these guys were Ornithicians, who all shared a common theme, which was that they existed in a realm of absolute constant danger. For the Encalosaurus and the Triceratops, both lived alongside the literal largest terrestrial pedigensation. that we know of, the T-Rex.

While then the Stygosaurus lived within the Morse information, perhaps the most infamous environment of the entire Jurassic, with plenty of different predators to pick from. So, with all this unusual amount of danger, each evolved to be freaks of nature amongst their own families. And it seems that part of this formula included a sprinkle of gigantism, as all three are considered to be the largest, or basically the largest, members of their entire families.

With the Encalisores weighing 8 tons, the Stegosaurus 5 tons, and the Triceratops between 6 and 10. 10 tons, depending on who you ask. And therefore, we are already talking about absolute units. But then on top of this, each of the three had evolved some pretty one-of-a-kind defenses and armor. The Encalisaurus had the trademarked osteoderms, which covered extensive parts of its body, and also possessed the largest known club of any known Encalisor, which could be swung, by the way, with enough power to pulverize bones, making any predation attempt a rather smooth-brained move. And while this does not mean anything in full certainty, it is also interesting that the Encalisaurus is the only known

large herbivore from the Hell Creek formation that has yet to be found with any damage coming from a T-Rex, showing that even the king was weary of this herbivorous nightmare. Then on the flip side, you had the Triceratops, who is the only known dinosaurs so far to have conclusively injured, a rex, based on the very well-known dueling dinosaur specimen. And he was able to achieve this thanks to its very own OP build, which included a massive bony frill on its head that acted as a protective cover, not just for its face, but its more vulnerable neck area as well. Then, sitting on top of this protection, the triceratops had the crowning achievement of the saratopsids, a wicked set of sharp horns that in its case came in three, with the two top ones being significantly longer

than the bottom. These lethal guys were made of a bony cores and then covered in a thick crats in his sheath, meaning that in life they were longer than what you see in the museums. And that is saying a lot, seeing that the largest recorded spikes coming from a specimen dubbed the Yoshis trike, and no, I'm not kidding, are already 115 centimeters, were nearly 3.8 feet long. So in other words, long enough that in most cars, if you were sitting in the passenger seat, you would still get skewered if a triceratops stuck its horn through the driver's window. Then, contrary to what many believe, the horns in life were curved, not straight, which actually made them a bit more nasty to get hit by, as the curve of nature would have caused more messy wounds and larger wound

channels that would increase bleeding and increase infection risk if you managed to survive, with due emphasis on the if part. Plus, because of this curvature, the triceratops had good leverage to then, if it wanted to, bucket's head back and either tip or throw whatever unfortunate animal into the air, kind of like what we see in modern-day bulls. And then last, but by no means least, there was the Stegosaurus, who had its infamous Thagamizer at the end of its large, muscular tail. Like the triceratops, the four defensive spikes were made up of a solid, bony core, which was then covered by, again, a keratinous sheath, making the spikes longer, and you guessed it, sharper. Based on one study, it was estimated that using its muscles, the stegosaurus could swing its tail

with enough power to generate about 35 kilos of force, which at first doesn't sound like a whole lot, but you have to remember that all this pressure was concentrated on the tips of the spikes, and therefore they were generating pressures more than a thousand times greater than the atmosphere at sea level, which in non-scientific terms means that it was more than enough to punch clean holes straight through flesh, muscles, organs, and get this, even bones. As one, seriously unfortunately, unfortunate allosaurus found out firsthand. You see, some years ago, an allosaurus specimen was found with a puncture-shaped wound on what was essentially its crotch. Yeah, ouch. And said puncture-shaped wound perfectly matched the shape of yours truly, the stegosaurus is thagamizer.

And what really sucked for this predator was that it didn't even die at first, which might sound mean to say, but makes a lot more sense when you realize that it suffered for an unknown duration of time before death finally took it due to the injury. And if the thagamizer wasn't enough somehow, there is a little known secret about the stegosaurus, which is that it was actually armored too. Well, part of it, as individuals possessed a specialized layer of neck armor known as Gular armor that was made up of hundreds of small bony plates and nodules, giving it resistance to throat attacks. And with that, we come to this video's end, but not the end of the list of incredibly hardcore herbivores, because trust me, there were plenty, plenty more to go around.

But their stories are for another day. Thanks for watching, and until next time, on extinction. Thank you.