It is quite entertaining to scare tiny reptiles. Whenever you startle those little reptiles, they run in a funny way and lose their tales if they get too scared. Amusing isn’t it? You feel your dominance over that poor creature because you are a member of the species that currently lords over the food chain. Now, imagine yourself living during the Jurassic era. When you see some of your prey’s gargantuan ancestors, you’d scamper off and lose your tail too. Such an irony was developed through generations and generations of evolution. Now, these dinosaurs are nothing more than science lessons and a bag of bones. Thanks to the efforts of paleontologists, we can finally have a taste of what it feels like to live out these science lessons. Anyway, let’s start this top ten list at the top.

10. The Rex Of All Lawnmowers

In November 2007, a paleontologist named Paul Sereno found the fossilized bones of a large creature known to sieve the prehistoric grasslands like a living lawnmower. The nigersaurus has a muzzle that resembled an air pump and is used by the dinosaur to graze. Its muzzle has rows of razor sharp teeth used to easily break off tough plants like ferns and vascular plants. Growing up to lengths of 30 feet, the nigersaurus was found to be the smaller cousins of the prehistoric giant, diplodocus. It’s strange that this dinosaur has a soft skull despite its large size, making it almost defenseless against monstrous predators such as the allosaurus and the tyrannosaurus.

A photo of the dinosaur Nigersaurus

9. Big Penguins

Penguins are normally cute little birds that jump around the ice of the Antarctic region. Thirty-six million years ago, this definition would have been laughable. The prehistoric penguins being studied by Julia Clarke and her team were as almost as large as full grown humans. These ancient penguins stood well over four feet and weighed much more than today’s penguin. The most surprising finding about these old birds is that they did not live in a snowy habitat. They actually lived in rainforests. It’s funny how evolution alters everything about a species, including its environment and niche.

The fossilized bones of the ancient penguins

8. If You Though the Triceratops was Old…

The rhino is one of the most powerful and fearsome land animals today. It weighs nearly a ton and has the power to upend small vehicles. However, those facts are a far cry to what their prehistoric versions can do. The triceratops is much larger and has more horns. They are known to give nasty prehistoric predators a run for the money when it comes to combat.

During the early part of 2007, scientists discovered the fossils of a larger species of triceratop. It bore a larger skull and it had horns the size of human arms. Soon, it was discovered that the remains belonged to the great ancestor of the triceratops, the albertaceratops. The fossils of the albertaceratops were found to be several million years older than those of the triceratops. Given its large size, it can ward off and even slay a clumsy tyrannosaurus, making a mouse out of the modern-day rhino.

A photo of the dinosaur Albertaceratops

7. Ancestral Frog Found

A miner in Mexico accidentally discovered the fossilized remains of an ancient frog that lived 25 million years ago. Smaller than a lot of today’s frogs, the ancient frog measures up to about a centimeter and lived in trees during its time. It closely resembled a lot of modern frogs and ate small. This fossilized find proves that the frog has actually outlived most of the largest and mightiest dinosaurs of its time, which is a gargantuan feat for such a small creature.

6. Scorpions That Dwarfed Men

If you saw the sequel to “The Mummy”, you probably shuddered in fear upon seeing The Scorpion King. His large claws are powerful and can break muscle-bound mustachioed henchmen with a single clampdown. He also knows a great deal about the most electrifying moves in wrestling, which makes him doubly scary. If you think that’s scary, think about being attacked by a group of giant scorpions that are as large as crocodiles. About 390 million years ago, those giant sea scorpions really existed and were one of the greatest sea predators of their time. The remains of the giant sea scorpion were dug up by a scientist on November 2007. It was declared as one of the biggest insects that ever existed. If we existed during those times, we would have been the insects compared to those sea monsters.

5. Hundreds of Dinosaur Eggs in India

Some people like their eggs scrambled, while others love them sunny-side up. However, paleontologists would rather have eggs that contained the babies of the largest dinosaurs to ever walk the land. That was indeed the case when three amateur explorers found hundreds of dinosaur eggs inside an obscure cave in India during the early part of 2007. They even found a large footprints made by the giant prehistoric lizards that laid the eggs.

The dinosaur eggs found in India

4. Prehistoric Croc in Oregon

These fossils, found by scientists in Oregon, belong to a prehistoric species that can directly connect the modern crocodile to prehistoric crocodiles from a hundred million years ago. These prehistoric crocodiles are part fish and part crocodile in appearance. Their exteriors aren’t as tough as those found in modern crocodiles but they’re more mobile underwater since they have tail fins.

 

3. A Mammoth Return?

After recovering a significant amount of mammoth fossils through the years, scientists are now planning to bring the mammoth back to life. Scientists managed to collect a significant amount of mammoth DNA through their discoveries and plan to fuse it with the DNA of Asian elephants. Asian elephants happen to be the closest relatives to mammoths and would have the highest success rate for cloning. Now, with the discovery of the intact baby mammoth, the chances of cloning ancient elephants rise dramatically. Scientists, however, are still debating about the benefits of literally bringing the mammoth out of extinction.

2. The Dinosaur Mummy

The year 2007 was marked by a couple of significant dinosaur discoveries. Both discoveries are groundbreaking since they can actually change a lot of scientific theories and can let humans decipher many of the current mysteries about dinosaurs. One of the discoveries is the mummified hardrosaurus found in Dakota. The duck-billed remains of the dinosaur are intact along with portions of its skin and tissue. Scientists even suspect that some of the internal organs might also be intact, but they are cautious in rushing toward any autopsy procedure until all the tests are done. The hardrosaurus mummy even redefined how scientists originally pictured the dinosaur. With the use of their advanced gadgets, scientists found out that the hardrosaurus had a more prominent backside and had a larger tail. It can also run faster than what they initially projected, given the structure of the mummy’s leg.

 

1. Well-Preserved Baby Mammoth Found

What beats finding a bunch of relics, fossils and dinosaur bones? Finding an actual dinosaur! In what appears to be one of the most significant dinosaur discoveries in history, a Russian hunter found a well-preserved baby mammoth in the icy plains of the Nenetsk region in Russia. The baby mammoth was found intact with only its hair missing. It is as large as a large as a full grown Saint Bernard and weighs a little over a hundred pounds. It now stands as one of the key figures in deciphering how these ancient beasts lived during the ice age. This find even furthered the future plan of bringing the mammoth back into existence through DNA collection and cloning. Talk about bridging the gap between theories and facts.

 

The dinosaur discoveries for the year 2007 are some of the answers that a lot of scientists have been looking for. Each geological find brings us closer to the true reason why we were built this way. One day, we may even find the true story of creation with the next geological find. Who knows?