Top 10 Terrifying Extinct Animals That Once Roamed the Earth

The wolf once ran wild across Japan, but its population was decimated by disease, and humans hunted down the last of the animal in the name of protecting livestock. Welcome to my blog, and we're counting down our picks for the most horrifying animals that no longer exist. The scale that it's portrayed at really brings the tremendous size of this animal home. It's mind-boggling to think of a living snake that large.

Hasts Eagle:

Hasts eagles were the largest eagles that we know of in the entire world. They had a wingspan up to 2.6 m wide, which is pretty massive. This massive bird called the South Island of New Zealand home for centuries. Weighing up to 33 lbs, it was the largest eagle that ever lived. With a size like that, it needed large prey to feed on. With its vulture-like head, and the eagle had that with the Moa, a flightless bird. Yet, when the Mai people settled on the island around 1300, that all changed. The humans hunted the Moa, taking the eagle's primary food source away. At the species population height, it was estimated there were up to 4,500 breeding pairs. By the year 1400, the Hasts eagle was extinct. People are going to be really surprised by how enormous it is, and our exhibitions are going to show just how spectacular they were.

Barbary Lion:

The disappearance of the Atlas lion in the wild was caused by the degradation of its natural habitat. It used to eat St eggs, deer, and other mammals that also disappeared. The lions we have now are already scary enough, but what if we told you they used to be a bigger species of lion that roamed the regions of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and other North African countries. Two were even kept in the Tower of London in the Middle Ages. However, by the mid-1800s, their numbers rapidly declined as firearms and bounties on the majestic creatures increased. According to witnesses, the last sighting of the species was in 1956 near a forest in Algeria. This forest was destroyed during the French Algerian war in 1958, seemingly finishing the lion's existence in the wild. But not all hope is lost. Some lions kept in zoos have shown similar DNA to the Barbary, and there are claims some Barbary lions are living in the Belfast Zoo. Here we have the Moroccan Royal Lions, which is the animals descended from the Royal Palace collection of the King of Morocco.

Bear Dog:

Look, charging right at us with huge teeth. It's a bear, it's a dog, it's Ocion. Popularly known as a bear dog, Ocion had features like both carnivorous mammals, and it was just one of a very diverse group of ancient meat eaters that ruled the Northern Hemisphere for over 30 million years. Although it had a tail and teeth like a wolf or dog, its huge body, which could weigh over half a ton, was more comparable to a bear's. Size matters, and size can dictate a vicious cycle that ends in species extinction. The bigger you are, the more food you need. And of course, they're mammals with a very high metabolic rate. Thought to have originated in North America, bear dogs spread out over Asia, Europe, and Africa too. Although they lived between 16 and 2 million years ago, the rise of other swifter mammal carnivores is theorized to have forced them into decline.

Titanoboa:

This mighty predator dominated then disappeared. Today, the largest snake species in the world is the green anaconda, which can be up to 500 lb and 29 ft long. But back in the middle to late Paleocene epoch, about 60 million years ago, the anaconda had nothing on the Titanoboa. This species is believed to have weighed up to 2,500 lb and had a length of up to 47 ft. Titanoboa weighed as much as 20 people. Movement on land was a constant fight with gravity. The Titanoboa was first discovered in Colombia in 2002, where its remains were at first incorrectly identified as crocodile bones. It probably lived throughout South America in rainforests and near freshwater, as its main prey appeared to be fish. Some think that ancient climate change may have caused the demise of the Titanoboa.

Caspian Tiger:

While we considered discussing the also extinct subspecies of tiger from Bali and Java, we're focusing on the Caspian tiger. As its name implies, they were native to areas near the Caspian Sea and beyond, being found as far west as Turkey and as far east as West China. Of the tiger subspecies, the Caspian tiger was most closely related to the Siberian tiger, although its coats tended to be brighter colored. The cause of its extinction was naturally humans hunting it. Although our killing of their food supply, like wild boar, didn't make it any easier for them to survive. The Caspian tiger was declared extinct in 2003.

Eurasian Cave Lion:

Slowly, slowly, slowly. People tend to associate the king of the jungle as a largely African species, but this extinct Eurasian subspecies may prove otherwise. Speculated to have become extinct around 10,000 years ago, these beasts were huge—on average over 7 ft long without the tail and could weigh 700 lb. Massive in size and a massive tongue twister to say, as their official name is the Panthera leo spelaea. Their fates were sealed when settlers made their way into their homes, and the rest, as they say, is history. In total darkness, the lion must use its senses of smell and hearing to land a killer blow.

Short-Faced Bear:

Although we considered discussing another extinct bear species, the Atlas bear of Africa, we’re electing to discuss a less recent extinct bear. Short-faced bears were native to North America and came in two species—the lesser short-faced bear and the greater short-faced bear. It's huge, weighing 900 kilos, 3.4 m tall on two legs. It could reach higher than a basketball hoop. True to their name, both species had shorter snouts than most bears. However, while the lesser species was comparable in size to modern bears, the greater short-faced bear was a massive 6 feet tall at the shoulder. It could look a tall human in the eye. It was possibly the largest terrestrial mammalian predator to ever live, and some weighed more than a ton. They became extinct around 11,000 years ago, possibly due to global cooling. As the Earth's new rulers, we just might learn something from this vanished and mighty predecessor.

Direwolf:

There are no dire wolves south of the wall—another R5? No, not direwolves. Dire wolf. Two words, not one. When it's one word, it's a fictional fantasy race that can grow to a massive size. But we're talking about the other, which, although bigger than grey wolves or another extinct subspecies, the Newfoundland wolf, wasn't quite that huge. Dire wolves inhabited China and North America as recently as 9,500 years ago. Of particular note is their bite force, which was the strongest of any known Canis species. Because of this, it's believed that they specialized in hunting large prey such as the once abundant megafauna that lived in North America. However, with the death of their prey, it's theorized that the dire wolf followed its food sources into extinction. Was the dire wolf unable to satisfy its savage hunger, or did some overwhelming force drive it into oblivion?

Saber-Toothed Cat:

Saber-tooth's power and weaponry were overwhelming, but suddenly, mysteriously, it became extinct. Misleadingly known as a saber-toothed tiger, these predators were vastly known far and wide for their curved and massive canine teeth. Once the teeth are engaged, those vessels can be sawed by those serrated edges on front or back. Despite officially having the cat in their name, they're not closely related to the modern animals and were, in fact, more agile, choosing to pounce from trees and then attacking with their almost foot-long teeth. With the Smilodon being the most well-known, these mammals' vicious nature proved to be their downfall at the end of the last Ice Age, as most of their chosen prey had either died out or had, ironically, been hunted by the cats themselves. Thus, the saber-tooth cat became extinct through its own means of hunting. The art of killing always strives toward perfection, and given the chance, a saber-tooth cat might well evolve again.

Megalodon:

Sharks have long fascinated people, and a giant shark? Well, that's even more interesting for some and more terrifying for others. Swimming the deep as recently as 3.6 million years ago, Megalodon shares a common ancestor with the great white shark, and they're generally reconstructed to appear similar to them. Still, while they may look like a great white, their size is even greater—with some estimates putting them at up to 52 ft long. Megalodon was probably the apex predator of all time. People think T-Rex or something like that—it's dwarfed by Megalodon. Megalodon is huge, maybe even 70 ft long. Their extinction is believed to have been caused primarily by a cooling trend from one of the planet's Ice Ages, which would have lowered sea levels and led to a loss of prey large enough to sustain them.

Which of these animals would you least like to encounter? Let us know in the comments below.