31 Favourite Monsters: Kronosaurus
Australia doesn’t have as many fossils from the age of dinosaurs (225-65 million years ago) as, say, North America, but this doesn’t make what we know of Australian fauna back then any less interesting. The gigantic pliosaur Kronosaurus queenslandicus is a very good example, holding the title of largest pliosaur known until rather recently. It lived 110 million years ago in the Eromanga Sea, which covered most of what is now inland Australia. At around 8-12 metres long, it was one of the largest animals in the sea, and a top predator at that. Rather than chase down prey, it would have relied on short, sharp bursts of speed. Not much could survive a multiton pliosaur crashing into them jaws-first. It would have been like Jaws to the power of infinity. Given this, and how popular culture adores the largest and most vicious animals, Kronosaurus was until recently the default pliosaur in fiction (before Liopleurodon ursurped it), serving as something of a representative for Australian Mesozoic fauna. I don’t care whether it's not as popular now, the image of a Kronosaurus zooming out of the depths, jaws gaping wide, is still damn scary. The knowledge that this beast actually existed at one point in time makes it scarier than any fictional sea beast Hollywood can dream up.