Creatures of the FRIGHT; Meet predators that ruled world.

Byline: BY MICHELLE O'KEEFFE

LONG before dinosaurs pigs ruled the world, experts revealed yesterday.

Palaeontologists have discovered the porcine age, when pig-like creatures - known as Lystrosaurs - dominated the earth for more than one million years.

Reconstructions from fossils suggest they were similar to modern pigs, complete with snouts and small tusks for rooting around in vegetation.

The animals were among the only survivors of the greatest mass extinction event ever when around 251 million years ago 95 per cent of all living species were wiped out by a series of volcanic eruptions.

These eliminated every large predator resulting in the Lystrosaurs having the planet almost entirely to themselves.

Professor of palaeo-environment at Leeds University said: "They fed and spread.

"We think there were billions of them. Their fossils are everywhere.

"We can only speculate on how Lystrosaurs survived while the rest died, but perhaps its ability to burrow and hibernate protected it from the worst periods.

"The remarkable thing about the Lystosaurs was their size.

"Nothing else that big seems to have got through the destruction, and that is why they were able to dominate the earth for so long afterwards.

"A massive volcanic eruption began in the northern part of Pangaea in what is now Siberia.

"Over thousands of years about 5,000,000km of basalt erupted onto the earth's surface and billions of tons of Co2 poured into the air."

But the "pigosauruses" were not the only weird creatures ruling the Earth before the coming of man...

ODD SHRIMP

A prehistoric animal - named odd shrimp - was widespread and the top predator of its era.

Anomalocaris, a fearsome marine creature up to two metres long, was the largest animal on Earth around 525 million years ago. Specimens have been reported from as far apart as Chengjiang in South China and at Emu Bay on Kangaroo Island off the coast of South Australia.

One of the Australian species appears to have combed through mud in search of soft-bodied animals.

However, the Canadian and Chinese forms swam after their prey.

Anomalocaris looks so bizarre that for more than 70 years fossil parts from the Burgess Shale in British Columbia were classified as four separate animals before being brought together as one animal in the mid-1980s.

It was described at the time by evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould as a "weird wonder" of the early Cambrian period, when the greatest known diversity of animals occurred.

THE DEMON DUCK OF DOOM

A 12-million-year-old giant thunder bird called Bullockornis had a massive head with large powerful jaws.

Although thunder birds were long thought to be plant-eaters, features of this bird's skull suggest that Bullockornis may have been a flesh-eater.

Scientists have nicknamed this huge bird for its suspected meateating habits and its possible distant relationship to waterfowl - the "Demon Duck of Doom".

Bullockornis stood approximately 8ft 2in tall and weighed up to 250 kg.

The bird's skull is larger than that of many small horses.

KILLER KANGAROOS

The Killer Kangaroos were flesheaters and palaeontologists digging in northern Australia claim to have found the fossilised remains of the ultimate fighting marsupial.

It was probably able to prey on animals as large as itself. It gripped its prey with its powerful arms and ripped through the meat with its strong jaws and sharp teeth.

The flesh-eating marsupial would have lived between 10 and 20 million years ago.

Vertebrate palaeontologist Sue Hand said the meat-eaters would have looked remarkably different from kangaroos around today.

She added: "These things had slicing crests that could have crunched through bone and sliced off flesh."

BIRD-EATING SPIDERS

Bird-eating spiders once ruled the earth and fossils of a new species of the creature - which is 240 million years old - have been discovered in eastern France, more than doubling the length of the current fossil record for them.

Their location suggests this type of spider was widespread during the Triassic period which could have been the age of the mygalomorphs.

Bird-eating spiders, otherwise known as mygalomorphs, are best known for their deadly representatives such as the large hairy tarantula and the Australian funnel-web.

But despite their name most of these creatures are small and live quietly in silk-lined burrows, trapping nothing more impressive than the occasional insect.

THE PREHISTORIC FISH

With jaws like a shark scientists believe Dunkleosteus Terrelli might have been "the first king of the beasts".

The prehistoric fish was 33ft long and weighed up to four tons.

It had bladed jaws, a flesh-tearing feature used on the sharks it preyed up on. The Dunkleosteus had the most powerful jaws of any fish ever, its bite rivaling that of T-Rex and modern alligators.

Dunkleosteus was one of many species of placoderms, a diverse group of armoured fishes that dominated aquatic ecosystems during the Devonian period, from 415 million to 360 million years ago.

The beast's powerful bite would have allowed it to feed on other armored aquatic creatures of the time - including sharks and arthropods.

Scientists revealed Dunkleosteus was the dominant predator of its time.

SABRE-TOOTHED TIGERS

The Sabre-toothed Tigers were among the most impressive carnivores that ever have lived.

Two different types of this species lived in the mid-western US at the end of the ice age.

One of the cats had enlarged canines which were up to seven inches long.

The second type had teeth four inches long.

Sabre-toothed Tigers probably lived in grassy plains, open woodlands, and other dry areas.

It is thought they feasted on large animals such as, horses, buffalo, deer, and antelope.

Sabre-toothed Tigers lived in North America and South America. The saber tooth tiger was one of a kind.

There are no close living relatives but palaeontolog its have compared its the skeleton to some of the largest living cats today.

CAPTION(S):

SURVIVOR Pig-like Lystrosaur was around before dinosaurs; FOWL PLAY Duck; FEARED Anomalocaris; FLESH EATER Killer Kangaroo; JAWS Dunkleosteus Terrelli preyed on sharks