Top 10 Sea Monsters

This list is based on how deadly the animal was, how impressive it was, and how famous it is...

10. Sea Scorpion

If you don't like spiders or scorpions, then this would be your worst nightmare. At up to 3 meters long, this huge arthropod was not a true scorpion. It did not possess a venomous tail. But it did have huge pincers.

9. Cretoxyrhina

This 6 meter long shark was the great white of it's day. It wasn't the top predator in it's environment, but it was certainly a good one.

8. Shonisaurus

These 12-16 meter long fish eaters weren't especially deadly(unless you were a fish or squid), but their impressive size makes them quite famous.

7. Elasmosaurus

Like Shonisaurus, this 13-15 meter long giant was not an exceptionally deadly beast, but with legends like Loch Ness, Elasmosaurus makes for an extremely famous and familiar face in the prehistoric sea monster world.

6. Basilosaurus

Basilosaurus was a 17-19 meter long whale from hell. It had huge teeth and a long, streamlined body. It was the top predator of it's day.

5. Dunkleosteus

One of the most famous prehistoric fish ever, Dunkleosteus had scissors for teeth(it technically didn't have any teeth) and was a huge 8-10 meter long giant. Few animals could match it's power in it's day.

4. Predator X

One of the largest marine reptiles of all time, Predator X(Pliosaurus funkei) was a killer of killers. It's 14-16 meter long body cruised through teh prehistoric oceans on a never ending search for food.

3. Tylosaurus

One of the biggest mosasaurs on record, this giant was over 11-13 meters long and had a skull over a meter in length. It's teeth alone were over 6 inches long. Tylosaurus would hunt anything from fish, to sharks, and other mosasaurs.

2. Mosasaurus

Perhaps the largest mosasaur ever, Mosasaurus(Mosasaurus hoffmanni in particular) was a giant among giants. It reached a mammoth 10-15 meters long! The apex predator of it's time and place, it would eat anything and everything!

Now, the number 1 spot is debatable. It's dependent on what you think the size of one of the contestants was. You'll see why in a second...

1 a. Megalodon

At a mind blowing 14-18 meters long, Megalodon is perhaps the most famous shark ever! Known as a whale killer, Megalodon has left little behind. Only a few giant teeth and vertebrae are known. Megalodon has the potential for being the top prehistoric sea monster, but if it's main rival was able to reach the size some have proposed, it may have been outgunned.

1 b. Liopleurodon

According to some, this may be the largest animal in the history of life on Earth. Even the lower estimates show a rather large animal, ranging between 6 and 12 meters long. However, some have proposed a size of 18-25 meters long and 75-150 tons in weight! Should these prove to be true, Liopleurodon would, in my opinion, easily overshadow Megalodon. But with the fossil record so incomplete, it's hard to say.

And with that, the title of top prehistoric sea monster remains up for grabs. For now...