VIDEO: These Are the Most Amazing Prehistoric Creatures Discovered Recently

Scientists, explorers and archaeologist never rest and they try to discover as many things as possible and explain to us how we got here and why we are the way we are.

They want to find out exactly how the world as we know it began and they study every possible lead.

This is why they have made plenty of discoveries in recent years and they even uncovered prehistoric creatures and have started to study them.

According to listverse.com, most prehistoric creatures were terrifying, and every day we’re glad they so politely died off those millions of years ago to bequeath us this awesome planet. But prehistoric animals weren’t always nightmarish.

Sometimes, they swapped terror for the weird and goofy.
Dinosaurs were a lot more colorful than we give them credit for in horror movies. You probably already know that some dinos sported flamboyantly hued feathers, but now we have strong evidence that even their eggs looked fabulous.

Oviraptor eggs, for example, were a soothing greenish-blue, according to a 67-million-year-old clutch of eggs found in China. Most fossilized dinosaur eggs have been stained dark as a result of minerals seeping into the shell over time.

However, the eggs in this particular clutch were pale and relatively untainted, allowing scientists to identify the pigments biliverdin and protoporphyrin.

These are the same pigments that produce the beautiful colors in the eggs of emus and cassowaries—two really old birds, evolutionarily speaking.

At first, it might seem like colored eggs would be easier for predators to spot, but it’s actually just the opposite.

Many dinosaurs kept their eggs in earthen, grassy nests, where a white egg would stand out like a sore thumb.

But verdigris eggs would have blended in perfectly, allowing mama dinos to leave their eggs safely camouflaged while they sauntered off to catch a quick meal.

First discovered in Germany in 1861, Archaeopteryx is a milestone species because it represents the transition between dinosaurs and birds.

Its teeth, claws, and beady eyes clearly identify it as a dinosaur, but its bird-like feathers show a clear link with modern avians as well.

For a long time, paleontologists weren’t sure whether Archaeopteryx had feathers all over its body or just on its wings.

But recently, a surprisingly intact new fossil (a total of 11 have been found so far) revealed plumes of feathers running down its legs.

Thanks to its thick feather-shafts, most scientists do think Archaeopteryx could fly, but the newly discovered leg feathers wouldn’t have played a great role in that. Instead, the lower-body fluff might have served several other functions, including insulation and camouflage.

It’s also possible that the pennate feathers evolved for display. The feathers found lining Archaeopteryx’s body are symmetrical. Which sounds great, but it’s actually asymmetrical feathers that are perfect for flight.

So, Archaeopteryx probably evolved feathers to entice mates or communicate, which were then gradually “recruited for aerodynamic functions.”

The time of the dinosaurs spawned some truly weird and horrific mouths, but Atopodentatus unicus is in a class of its own.

Its mouth is so bizarre, it was actually named after it—Atopodentatus roughly translates as “weird teeth.”