Title says most! Post your favorite animal and explain why.
Mine: Komodo dragon. Because it’s huge, relatively smart by reptile standards and it’s just outright awesome.
Reptile fanboy here.
Favorite animal that still lives: Saltwater crocodile and sharks, beautiful creatures that have been around for countless of millions of years, they survived several mass extinctions. Despite all the problems in history they’re still here, unchanged and still kicking ass. Most people think of them as vicious killers, but they’re really quite peaceful (especially sharks) and very important to the balance of their environment.
Favorite extinct animal: Tyrannosaurus (Rex), not much to say here. Strongest bite of any terrestrial animal, one of the largest brains by pre-historic standards, best sense of smell, superb binocular vision. Teeth twice the size of a human hand. There’s a reason it’s called the Tyrant Lizard King. Magnificent animal.
Giant Squids are pretty cool.
Schnauzers.
wat
inb4corgis
I like rodents a lot, and had a pet rat a few years ago. He was awesome, so I’m gonna go with rats.
If we’re counting extinct, then I choose whatever freshwater monster occupied this shell:
(6 feet wide, 7 feet long, I recently saw it in person and it is massive)
If it has to be extant, then I’ll settle for the Alligator Snapping Turtle:
Some pre-historic turtles were as large as a car. Still nothing compared to other extinct marine super predators like Carcharadon Megalodon and Liopleurodon etc.
I wonder how old those turtles would get, likely more than 100 years.
There were slightly larger oceangoing turtles, but that’s the largest freshwater turtle shell in the world.
Sure, other animals got bigger, in fact the placard noted that the resident turtle lived in swamps at a time when giant crocodiles were lively… but what’s so awesome about that one is that once the turtle has gotten to that size, it’s not bite-size for any predator. Combined with a ripe old life expectancy, that’s the closest a species can come to immortality. One tortoise, in recent captive history, managed to see 250.
A Tyrannosaurus Rex would probably be the only animal capable of bitchin’ through such armour, but they were extant so it’s kinda pointless. Next to the Ankylosaurus the turtle was probably the most well defended animal to have ever existed.
for me, it would have to be a Deinonychus (Jurassic-park-style Velociraptor). The T-Rex is Great and all, but recent findings have emasculated the king of Cretaceous Montana.
If we’re talking animals that are around today… I’d have to say the Giant squid takes the cake. A twenty-something-foot-long cephalopod that still makes whales its bitch is something to think about.
How so?
Actually everything we can be certain about that it’s from Liopleurodon is from an about 6 meter long animal. Big, but still not as large as for example Kronosaurus, and Pliosaurus/Stretosaurus and Predator X.
The colossal squid?
Whale is fucking cool!
Chameleon also
Bored scientists must have fun naming these.
Also, I should have know Walruses would enter the scene.
Kinda agree. On both things.
I’m shocked it took this long scowls at everyone