Top 12 Extinct Animals That Lived In Oklahoma
Cacops:Cacops is one of the extinct species of the genus Dissorophid temnospondyls. This reptile-like amphibian had a lightly armored back, a short tail, and stubby legs and was equipped with relatively advanced eardrums.
Trilobites:Trilobites are extinct marine arthropods that belong to the class Trilobita. They lived throughout the lower Paleozoic and started declining in the Devonian.
Diplocaulus:Diplocaulus is the largest and best-known extinct amphibian of the genus Lepospondyl. It had a stocky, salamander-like body that measured about 3.3 feet long .
Varanops:Varanops is an extinct species of the genus Pelycosaur. It was a large animal, about the size of a modern monitor lizard. It measured approximately 3.9 feet long, with sharp, backward-curved teeth and large limbs.
Dimetrodon:Dimetrodon is an extinct reptile-like species of the genus non-mammalian synapsid that lived in the Early Permian, about 295-272 million years ago.
Cotylorhynchus:Cotylorhynchus is an extinct species of the synapsid clade Caseidae. It was considered a close relative of Dimetrodon and also the largest terrestrial vertebrate of the Early Permian.
Saurophaganax:Also known as the “lord of lizard-eaters,” Saurophaganax is the official state dinosaur of Oklahoma from the latest Kimmeridgian age, about 151 million years ago.
Sauroposeidon:Sauroposeidon is an extinct species of the genus Sauropod dinosaur. It measured between 54 and 112 feet, with its neck extended, making it one of the tallest dinosaurs.
Acrocanthosaurus:Acrocanthosaurus is a high-neural spined lizard of the early Cretaceous period, about 125 million years ago. Its fossils were discovered in Oklahoma shortly after the Second World War.
Glyptotherium:Glyptotherium is an extinct group of massive, graviportal, herbivorous armadillos that belong to the genus Glytodont. They lived from 1.8 million years ago (Early Pliocene) to about 7,000 years ago (Early Holocene).
Woolly Mammoth:The woolly mammoths traversed the vast plains of Oklahoma. Access Midstream workers discovered their remains while installing a high-pressure natural gas line northwest of Enid.
Mastodon:Oklahoma was home to mastodons during the Ice Age, about 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago. Granite residents discovered a mastodon’s teeth, tusk, and femur many years ago.