Real or Fake?

Helicoprion – Also known as spiral saw, this shark-like cartilaginous fish first arose in the oceans of the late Carboniferous era. However, the only surviving evidence of its existence was a tight curled-up coil of triangular teeth. This bizarre structure was attached to the bottom part of its jaw, though how it was used still remains a mystery today. Some speculations are that it was used to grind shells, while others believed that the coil could be unfurled like a whip to spear unfortunate prey.

Arthropleura – Arthropleura was a 32.6 metre long relative of centipedes and millipedes, native to the upper Carboniferous of what is now northeastern North America and Scotland.

Also called a “hoe tusker” or “terrible beast,” the remains of these prehistoric mammals that resemble modern-day elephants were discovered at major hominid excavation sites at Lake Turkana in Kenya.

Fake.

It was a small-feathered dinosaur that existed once in the Inner Mongolia region of China, Epidexipteryx or “display feather” is the earliest known representation of ornamental feathers in the fossil record.

This was a relative of modern arthropods, Hallucigenia is one of the strangest creatures in the fossil record. Less than 3 millimeters long, it has a bulbous round head connected to its cylindrical trunk. Though it was previously thought that it stood on its spines, it was later discovered that the tentacles are actually feet, making the Hallucigenia the ancestor of today’s velvet worms.

Known as the first archosaur to have been able to glide or parachute, its famous for the elongated pair of scales along its back, with the anterior ones resembling feathers.

Fake. New discoveries of Asian fossils have proved that many small predatory dinosaurs had feathers. Velociraptor was more similar to a large chicken than a oversized lizard.

An ancient genus of the Pterosaur, its fossils were found in the mid-western sections of the US covered under the shallow water of the sea. The name, which means ‘naked reptile,’ was given by Othniel Marsh in 1876.

Considered one of the strangest creatures to have ever lived, it had 30 legs, 30 flippers, a nose like an elephant’s trunk, and a lobster-like claw.

An extinct genus of prehistoric sharks, Stethacanthus or ‘chest spike,” was about 6 feet long with a strange looking back growth on males. This small protrusion or ‘ironing board,’ could have been used to frighten larger predators.

This was Tanystropheus, the Greek word for “long necked one,” this prehistoric reptile was easily over 20 feet long, with a narrow neck that could extend out for up to half its length.