15-20 Foot Giant Prehistoric fanged "Tarpon"

[RyanCreek]

Sometimes we all do a little daydreaming. One of the greatest things I could ever imagine having the opportunity of doing is to go back in time to fish the prehistoric oceans. This would be my quarry!:

xiphactinus - The fanged "tarpon"

With a top speed around 60km/h, this immense fish was always likely to be "the one that got away".
Type: Bony fish
Size: Up to 6m long
Predators: Sharks such as Cretoxyrhina
Lived: Late Cretaceous, 87-65 million years ago.

Xiphactinus had a dark blue back and light silver belly to camouflage it from above and below. Sharp teeth at one end and a powerful tail at the other combined to make it a formidable pursuit hunter.
Xiphactinus cruised in surface waters of the oceans. It caught other large fish (swallowing creatures up to 2m long whole) and was prepared to have a go at seabirds on the surface, like a floating Hesperornis.
Above all else, Xiphactinus was a great swimmer, able to speed towards or away from virtually anything else in the seas of the time. It may have been able to leap above the waves at times to help dislodge parasites from its skin. It was not however immune from attack. If injured, its large size meant it was easy to spot and could become prey for sharks.

[url "http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://homepages.dordt.edu/~mahaffy/paleo/fish/varner04.jpg&imgrefurl=http://homepages.dordt.edu/~mahaffy/paleo/fish/xiphactinus.html&h=400&w=600&sz=24&hl=en&start=10&um=1&tbnid=snnkgnlPSblnDM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=135&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dxiphactinus%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1T4IRFA_enUS241US241%26sa%3DN"][/url]
[url "http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.rhfleet.org/media/images/sea_monsters/Xiphactinus_lg.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.rhfleet.org/media/images/&h=3444&w=3802&sz=1529&hl=en&start=4&um=1&tbnid=FOOItmPVkF1u3M:&tbnh=136&tbnw=150&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dxiphactinus%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1T4IRFA_enUS241US241%26sa%3DN"][/url]

[url "http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/XiphactinusDB.jpg/800px-XiphactinusDB.jpg&imgrefurl=http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:XiphactinusDB.jpg&h=533&w=800&sz=38&hl=en&start=9&um=1&tbnid=czIMJjlKiFPPDM:&tbnh=95&tbnw=143&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dxiphactinus%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1T4IRFA_enUS241US241%26sa%3DN"][/url]

[url "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiphactinus"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiphactinus[/url]


What a trip that would have been huh!? Could you imagine hooking up with a fish like that? It isn't actually an ancestor to the tarpon, but filled that same kind of niche as modern day tarpons do, which is why it had the same kind of characterics - big, hungry, schooling, quick, and acrobatic. It was way ahead of its time.
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[Plan9]

Extraordinary! Great post, I guess it's like saber tooth meets bonefish.

I guess you'd need one heck of a leader.
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[IFishCT.com]

lol, u got my hopes up thinking I was going to see that someone caught one off madagascar or something...
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[tubeN2]

Those are cool looking fish. I'm just glad they aren't around anymore. It is hard enough to avoid sharp objects with my float tube in the saltwater.[shocked]
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