10 Weirdest Extinct Creatures

Meet the guys with chin tusks, five eyes and claws bigger than their own face.

A statistic that seems to get thrown around a lot when discussing extinction is that over 99% of the species that have ever lived on this earth are now gone forever. In one sense, we€™re probably quite lucky that that€™s the case. After all, if the dinosaurs hadn€™t been killed off, mammals may never have had the chance to become the dominant class of creatures that they are today. If Neanderthals hadn€™t died out, we€™d almost certainly be involved in an ongoing xenophobic war with them rather than getting along smoothly. We€™re really tolerant like that. However, we€™re also missing out on some amazing sights that were part of our ancestors€™ daily lives. Imagine if some of nature€™s long dead species were still around today; herds of majestic woolly mammoths migrating across a busy motorway; stumpy little dodos eating chips and pasties off high street pavements; enthralling Attenborough documentaries about the daily lives of the stegosaurus. And best of all, there would be a whole host of weirdos to stare at. Mother Nature has killed off over five billion species in total (with a little help from the human race) and some of them looked really, really strange.

 
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Peter Austin initially joined WhatCulture as an occasional contributor to our Film, Gaming and Science sections, but made the mistake of telling us that he'd been making videos in his bedroom for over a decade. Since then he's been a vital member of our YouTube team and routinely sets the standard for smart-casual wear in the office.