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{{trope|wppage=Sea in culture#Early_history}}
[[File:
{{quote|''On a scale of one to ten, [[Broke the Rating Scale|there is no number large enough.]]''
|Flavor text for Cawh, pictured, ''[[Magi Nation]]''}}
These are the big ones. These are the sea monsters whose size not only matches ships but dwarfs them. When these are introduced, all you'll see is an overhead shot of a small boat on top of a much larger shadow in the water and "small boat" ranges from fishing ship to aircraft carrier. These beasts aren't just big, they're [[Title Drop|leviathan]].
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If you were looking for the book by [[China Mieville]], see ''[[Kraken (novel)|Kraken]]''.
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* In ''[[Digimon Xros Wars]]'' Taiki unleashes Leviamon upon a Bagura Digimon.
* In ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'', the mythological Leviathan of Atlantis seems to be a cross between a dragon and a sea serpent.
* In the most recent{{when}} manga chapter of ''[[One Piece]]'' {{spoiler|the Straw Hat Crew discovers a gigantic kraken that feeds on ships that pass. [[Fluffy Tamer|Luffy, of course]], seems to have intentions of making it the [[Team Pet]]. If he manages to get control of it, the Marines are really gonna freak}}.
** {{spoiler|[[Oh Crap|He did.]]}}
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* As you might expect, both the [[Sub-Mariner]] and [[Aquaman]] have tangled with these types of creatures. For obvious reasons, they stand a much better chance than do the land-dwelling, air-breathing humans.
** And remember Aquaman, the so-called "[[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?|lame]]" hero, can [[Heart Is an Awesome Power|summon and control creatures like these.]]
== [[Fan Works]] ==
* In ''[[The Games We Play (RWBY fanfic)|The Games We Play]]'' by Ryuugi, a ''[[RWBY]]''/''[[The Gamer]]'' [[Crossover Fic]], once Jaune starts coming into his full power, he (and some friends) start leaving the Vale area to hunt truly monstrous Grimm. One variety they eventually face are [[Kaiju]]-sized sea-going Grimm explicitly called "Leviathans"; there are several others.
== [[Film]] ==
* In ''[[Star Wars]] Episode One'', the Naboo ocean seems to be filled with monsters each getting bigger and bigger as you go deeper and considering the fact that the planet is meant to be hollow and full of ocean that gets you some pretty big fish. Also the oceans of Kamino. Ah hell, any planet with an ocean in the Galaxy Far Far Away is bound to have sea monsters in it.
* The creature from ''[[Cloverfield]]'', possibly.
** [[Word of God]] states that the creature
*** Though said creator seems to have taken on the anger of the co-Gods by saying as such, since the others went with the alien explanation, or at the very least wanted viewers to make up their own truths.
* The Kraken from the ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]'' series gets bonus obfuscation points for being called "Davy Jones' Leviathan" once. Maybe they just meant leviathan as in "really big thing".
** The
* According to ''[[Atlantis: The Lost Empire]]'', the Biblical Leviathan is actually a ''giant mechanical lobster'' that guards the entrance to Atlantis and looks nothing like the Biblical Leviathan.
** The Kraken was actually featured in the first act of the film's sequel.
* Most people know of the Kraken thanks to ''[[Clash of the Titans]]''. Never mind [[Sadly Mythtaken|what a Scandinavian creature was doing in Ancient Greece.]]
** Not to mention that it is... you know... nothing resembling a squid that pretends to be an island. According to the director's commentary, they didn't even know about the Kraken's mythological origins and attributed its creation to the poem by Tennyson that [[Small Reference Pools|most people these days have never heard of]].
*** In [[Ray Harryhausen
*** Not to mention, just because the Kraken is from Scandinavia doesn't mean it has to stay there. It could just swim wherever the hell it wants!
** The thing from Clash was supposed to be Cetus/Ketos, the sea monster that Princess Andromeda was supposed to be sacrificed to, but they changed its name for no clear reason.
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* Ursula's [[One-Winged Angel]] form in ''[[The Little Mermaid]]''.
== [[Literature]] ==
* The "Leviathan" mentioned above is described in the Book of Job (Ch. 41, all of it), in the Old Testament of [[The Bible]], and referenced elsewhere. Unlike most sea creatures, the Leviathan has an affinity for fire or something reasonably similar. Job 41:8 ("Lay thine hand upon him, remember the battle, do no more.") seems to indicate a reasonably high encounter survival rate, considering that this creature is essentially a seagoing dragon.
** Leviathan represents the sin of Envy. "Envy lurks in the hearts of men, as Leviathan lurks beneath calm waters."
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** The Behemoth can swallow ironclads.
*** Here it is in action.http://www.keiththompsonart.com/pages/navalbattle.html
* Taylor Anderson's
* The final book of the ''[[Illuminatus]] Trilogy'', ''Leviathan'', has the main characters coming face-to-um...''something'' with the eponymous sea-monster, a titanic single-celled organism that's survived and grown since the Paleozoic Era.
* The Enterprise fish from ''[[The War Against the Chtorr]]'', part of the ecological [[Alien Invasion]]. These massive fish roam the oceans eating everything natural or man-made to fuel their constant hunger and enormous growth. [[Immune to Bullets]] thanks to their massive layers of blubber, the only way to destroy them is with a low-yield atomic torpedo.
* Steve Alten writes a lot of books with these; his novel Meg was about a Megalodon (sixty foot prehistoric shark) that makes it to the surface after surviving down in the Marinara Trench. [[Hilarity Ensues]]. It suffered from some [[Sequelitis]] though. His more recent novel The Loch deals with, of course, [[Stock Ness Monster|the Loch Ness Monster]]. In a twist however, Nessie isn't a peaceful plesiosaur but a giant eel with a taste for tourists.
* The Leviathan makes an appearance during [[The End of the World as We Know It]] in ''[[Good Omens]]''. Since this particular apocalypse has all the Biblical imagery being filtered through a boy who has recently overdosed on [[Green Aesop
{{quote|''The Kraken stirred. And ten million sushi dinners cried out for vengeance.''}}
* Among the whales are [[Moby Dick]] and the giant shark from ''[[Pinocchio]]'' [[Disneyfied]] into a giant whale (and thus, the 'big fish' from the Bible that inspired it).
* Drowned Wednesday from the [[Keys to the Kingdom]] series was cursed to turn into a massive, omniphagic whale.
* Father from ''[[Animorphs|The Ellimist Chronicles]]'', a sponge-like creature big enough to cover an entire planet.
* [[J. R. R.
* Shimmer, the dragon protagonist from Laurence Yep's ''[[Dragon Series]]'' gets into a fight with a raiding party of krakens.
* Although we haven't seen any big sea monsters on the [[Discworld]] itself, there are mentions of the Midgard Serpent from Norse Mythology circling other flat worlds in ''[[
* In ''[[Narnia|The Voyage of the Dawn Treader]]'', the eponymous ship is attacked by a large sea serpent, which almost manages to crush it in its coils.
* In ''[[Chronicles of the Emerged World|Sennar's Mission]]'' a gargantuan sea monster similar to a kraken is met on the way to the Submerged World. Its hunting method consist in wait for ships and then make them slither on his body to the gaping mouth in the middle, using tentacles if necessary. However, the beast is never named.
* One of [[Larry Niven]]'s "Svetz the time traveler" stories is ''Leviathan!'', in which he is sent back in time to catch a whale, but the first "whale" he latches onto with his tractor beam is just too big to bring back
* In ''[[Tortall Universe|Wild Mage]]'', during the attack on Pirate's Swoop, Daine tries to convince a pod of whales to attack the Carthaki backed pirate fleet. [[Actual Pacifist|When they refuse and leave]], Daine sends her awareness far out after them, and wakes the Kraken. [[Affably Evil|He's more than happy]] to destroy any fleet she wants. She knows full well it's [[Deal with the Devil|a deal with a demon]], but she's desperate and agrees to his offer. He's described as an octopus with too many arms that are a mile long each, with a body that's a mile and a half. He's also fast: Daine found him out past the Copper Isles, a four day sail. He made it to Pirate's Swoop in the space of a morning.
== [[Live-Action TV]] ==
* One episode of ''[[Jurassic Fight Club]]'' featured a battle between a ''Megalodon'' shark (see above) and its more recently-discovered contemporary, the "biting sperm whale".
* ''[[Beast Legends]]'' did an episode featuring a digitally animated kraken incorporating the nastiest features of the Giant Octopus, Giant Squid and Colossal Squid, scaled up to 200 ft long from the tip of its head to outstretch tentacles, which take up half the body length them selves.
* If we go with the view that [[Space Is an Ocean]], Moya's species of giant living ships called "Leviathans" count as examples of this trope.
* The Leviathans on ''[[Supernatural]]'' are not giant sea creatures, but rather are perfectly capable of living on land and while they are seldom seen in their true form, there's no sign that this true form is any bigger than the human disguises they use. But there are good mythological reasons for calling them by the name "Leviathan": Their backstory is related to biblical mythology; they are [[Eldritch Abomination]] s that are all about [[To Serve Man|having a predatory appetite]]; and when their true form is shown, the view isn't very clear, but it definitely has [[More Teeth Than the Osmond Family]].
== [[Music]] ==
* "Belly of the Whale" by Burning Sensations. The video shows the band and others partying in a set that's loosely modeled on a giant whale's mouth, complete with a water-slide entrance.
* Mastodon's second album, ''Leviathan'', particularly the song "Megalodon".
* Alestorm, a [[Crazy Awesome|Scottish Pirate Metal band]], has a song called (and glorifying) "The Leviathan" on their album ''Black Sails At Midnight''.
* Revocation has "Leviathan Awaits"; here, the eponymous creature seems to be a borderline [[Eldritch Abomination]] with thousands of eyes, enormous barbed tentacles, and a gigantic, fanged maw. It also devours the research sub that [[Too Dumb to Live|decided to go poking around its domain]] with ''insulting'' ease.
* [[Steampunk]] band The Cog is Dead has a song titled ''To the Depths Below'' on their album, ''Steam-Powered Stories''. It describes a large, mechanical beast referred to as a leviathan.
* [[Metallica]]'s "The Thing That Should Not Be" is about a massive [[Eldritch Abomination]] living below the sea.
** The Lovecraft misquote in the lyrics("not dead which eternal lie / stranger eons death may die") makes it pretty clear this is in fact Cthulhu.
* [[Technical Death Metal]] band Fleshgod Apocalypse makes an interesting take in their EP ''Mafia''. They play a cover of a song by [[At the Gates]], "Blinded By Fear", which is about an unnamed terror that "unleaashes purgatory and burns the face of the earth"; however, in the cover, after the song is over a sound of waves and ocean is heard, implying the terror is a sea creature. The fact that [https://web.archive.org/web/20190928134650/http://images.wikia.com/lyricwiki/images/4/47/Fleshgod_Apocalypse_-_Mafia.jpg the cover for the EP features a huge octopus-like creature rising from the sea helps].
== [[Oral Tradition]], Folklore, Myths and Legends ==
* [http://www.biblegateway.com/quicksearch/?quicksearch=leviathan&qs_version=KJV The leviathan], as described in [[The Bible]].
* Jormungandr the World Serpent of Norse myth is also under the sea, long enough to wrap around the world, some legends say ''twice''.
* Greek mythology has several large marine creatures. They were typically sent by the sea-nymphs to ravage land-dwelling kings or queens who offended them, and the royals tried to appease the monsters by sacrificing their beautiful daughters, which the heroes then had to rescue. One particularly worthy of mention being Ketos, the monster who was slain by Perseus. It is very obvious that Ketos was what the Kraken was meant to be in ''[[Clash of the Titans]]'', but they opted for the creature of the Norse myths instead.
** There's also Scylla (or is it Charybdis?),from ''[[Odyssey|The Odyssey]]''.
*** Scylla was a six headed, snake necked creature that sat atop a cliff and snatched sailors from passing ships. The reason they didn't just sail around was because of the creature opposite the cliff, Charbydis. Basically she was a giant mouth under water. Every time she opened her mouth, a whirlpool formed to suck everything down. The original rock and hard place.
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** Another example would be the unspecified sea monster sent by Posiedon to help the Greeks in the Trojan War, too bad for Odessius he forgot to give Posiedon props for that when it was over.
** Of course the best example to be found in this mythology would probably be Echidna the ''literal'' mother of them all, and a whole bunch of others who don't share her watery lair as well.
* And then, of course, there's [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|the Kraken and the Leviathan]]. The former emerged in medieval Scandinavian, especially Norwegian [[Nautical Folklore]],<ref>It is not yet found in [[Norse Mythology]].</ref>
* Apep might also count. He was a colossal serpent that stalked the ancient Egyptian underworld, hoping to devour the sun god. According to [[The Other Wiki]] one of his nicknames was "World Encircler", making him similar to Jormungandr above.
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* Many blue creatures from ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'', which includes [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=121198 Leviathans], [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=2525 Krakens], [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=135250 and other deep sea monsters].
* In ''[[Rifts]]'', the biggest [[Sea Monster]] is the Lord of the Deep, also referred to as ''both'' Kraken and Leviathan, a massive [[Cosmic Horror]] resting at the bottom of the Marianas Trench with tentacles that can reach for thousands of miles.
* ''[[Dungeons
** The splatbook ''Elder Evils'' has the Leviathan, an immense world-spanning sea monster made out of pure chaos which was a side-effect of the creation of the world. It sleeps at the bottom of the ocean and will eventually fade away into nothingness, provided nobody wakes it up. Unfortunately, since this is [[Apocalypse How|Elder Evils]] we're talking about...
** Kraken and another Leviathan also appear in the various ''Monster Manuals'', the former being a particularly [[Giant Squid]] with magical powers, the latter being a really, ''really'' big whale. Supposedly.
** ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'' got
** While it never appeared in the original novels, the ''[[Dragonlance]]'' modules based on the Chronicles trilogy give us the King of the Deep. The King of the Deep is a nightmarish sea monster with the body of a huge fish covered in silver hairs, the head of a giant squid, and a pair of long, deadly lobster claws, created when ten (or twelve in the updated 3rd Edition version) of the corrupted priests of Istar offered themselves to the [[Big Bad|Queen of Darkness]], who turned them into this monster.
* In Chaosium's ''[[Stormbringer]]'' supplement ''Demon Magic'', the adventure "Sorcerer's Isle" had a [[Megalodon]] that could sink ships by biting through their hulls and a giant whale-like demon named Lvthn.
* ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' has a few, though they're rather obscure.
** The Space Wolf homeworld has a ''massive'' kraken (said to be a [[Horde of Alien Locusts|Tyranid]] offshoot) and sea serpents straight out of Norse myth, appropriate given the Space Wolves' Viking theme.
** A sea monster is said to live on the planet Armageddon, where it attacked Ork ships. Given the nature of the setting, it's a safe bet that most world with any oceans have at least one.
** Though a couple references that aren't obscure by any stretch of the imagination are the Tyranids of the hive fleets named, you guessed it, Kraken and Leviathan. The third canonic hive fleet ([[Canon Discontinuity|ignoring Naga, Jormungadr, and Gorgon]]) is Behemoth, the first fleet to appear in the chronology.
** ''[[Rogue Trader]]'' has Void Krakens. They are spaceship-sized and slow enough that even most transport ships can outrun them in a straight line, and cannot attack at range. But they consist of stone-like substances, misshapen, have a habit of lurking in asteroid fields and neither have active sensors nor vent hot plasma out of their rear ends, so usually they are very hard to detect one until it's ''very'' close, especially if you don't specifically look for it. Also, they are tough, more maneuverable than human ships normally can be, and if one grapples a ship, it's hard to shake off, while shooting at it (whether from the grappled ship or others) damages the ship too. It can swat smaller objects with lesser tentacles, so not even [[Point Defenseless]]. Also, spacefarers traditionally make nice knives (that are also considered good luck charms) out of their "teeth", that is smaller claws from tentacles, though those are far more likely to be found stuck in a heavily damaged derelict than cut out of a slain kraken.
* The ''[[New World of Darkness]]'' has the Leviathan as the Kerberos of the Ocean of Fragments. It dwarfs nearly everything else on this list, and pretty much qualifies for [[Eldritch Abomination]] status on size alone, even disregarding that it's an unstoppable force of nature that literally the entire human race has nightmares about. To give some idea of the scale, no-one has any idea what it actually looks like or what it is—it's so massive that the most anyone's ever seen of it is a vast, seemingly-infinite wall of flesh that gives no hints to its form. The best guess anyone has is that it's some sort of impossibly gigantic cephalopod, but that's just because it has tentacles.
** There's also a fan-brew game on RPG.net, ''[[Leviathan: The Tempest]]'', which is all about playing the [[Fish People]] in human form descended from primordial gods of the ocean. They have the ability to assume ungodly large forms, but don't do it except for dire circumstances as it tends to rend the [[Masquerade]] in two and drives humans into a state of holy terror.
*** And humans would utterly crush any Leviathan who tried it.
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** It also has a kraken, although said kraken is made of magma.
== [[Theatre]] ==
* In [[Shakespeare]]'s ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream]]'', Oberon sends Puck off with orders to complete "before the Leviathan can swim a league".
== [[Video Games]] ==
* ''[[City of Heroes]]'' features Lusca, one of the biggest [[Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever|Giant Monster]] class enemies in the form of a colossal octopus that menaces Independence Port, and takes over a dozen players to systematically defeat. Oddly, the Kraken in that game is less aquatic, but [[That's No Moon|you don't want to know about the Leviathan]]...
** The thing called Kraken is a giant alien from another dimension. During a mission in [[Ancient Rome|Cimerora]] you must fight off tentacles of the actual Kraken.
** Cap'n Krak'n Jumbo Seafood sign in Independence Port and Talos Island. Complete with octopus holding a spoon and fork and wearing a bib.
* ''[[
* ''[[Resistance]] 2'' features the Kraken. It's actually kind of puny compared to some of these, but it's enormous and tentacley. It also features a creature called a Leviathan, but that one's more [[Kaiju]] than [[Giant Swimmer]], despite living in the mostly-flooded Chicago.
* [[Final Fantasy X|Sin]] is an unusual example in that it shows it can fly toward the middle of the game, but otherwise fits this trope. It appears in [[Ansem Retort]] as "World-killing God-whale," and it's [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]].
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* The second ''[[Endless Ocean]]'' game has both of these. There, the Leviathan is a large albino sperm whale with a back story lifted from ''[[Moby Dick]]''. The Kraken appears in the form of Kraken Jr., a young giant squid.
* In ''[[Kid Icarus]]: Uprising'', you fight a [[Giant Space Flea From Nowhere|Giant Space Kraken]] at the end of Chapter 8.
* In the Boreas seabed mission of ''[[Guild Wars]]'', players have to fight a giant kraken like creature as the final boss. In addition, "Leviathans" are large sea serpent like enemies that the players fight at points in the mission "the deep", as well as being frozen in jade at
* In ''[[Subnautica]]'', monstrous predators (explicitly identified as"leviathans") dwell in the deeper parts of the volcanic caldera where you've crashlanded.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* ''[[The Dreamland Chronicles]]'': they venture to the cave of the kraken.
* ''[[Wapsi Square]]'' features a creature bearing some resemblance to the kraken. It is ancient and large enough to [http://wapsisquare.com/comic/little-too-long/ drop a U-boat on a beach.] At one point in the past, Bud made a [[Cool Pet|pet]] out of it and named it Stinky.
* In ''[[Scary Go Round]]'', the Kraken is caught by Ernest Cromerty, Gibbous Moon and Desmond [[Fish People|Fishman]] (who [[Red Herring|was previously suspected by some readers to be himself the Kraken]], because he was designated with this term in a prophecy).
* ''[[Girl Genius]]'' has large [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20171122 whales] and [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20171208 cephalopods] peacefully present in England.
** And then there are Great Cetaceans. They are [https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/ggmain/doublespreads/ggcoll20_082_83.html immense] and quite sapient, so as far as the ocean dwellers (other than Brits) are concerned, they are living gods (though whether they have powers comparable to abilities of [[God-Emperor|Ancient God-Queens]] remains to be seen). They have an obvious problem communicating with smaller sapient beings, but can use [[Willing Channeler|speakers]] trained to contact them mind-to-mind among the other species to this end, and in rare cases when they need to communicate with humans, draft [[Fish People|Deepdwellers]] as intermediaries "close enough" mentally. Naturally, anything this big is a whole ecosystem unto itself, and in this case a mobile city as well. They also grow "small" chambers where even humans can breathe and survive. Occasionally actually called "Leviathans" by both [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20200106 Deepdwellers] and [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20200504 humans].
** There was a bit of Kraken vs. Leviathan fighting not so long ago, but not much is known about it… except [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20180511 exactly] [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20181116 whom] to [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20200108 blame] for this.
** Wild squids are (or at least were) also used as a [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20180604 variant of capital punishment].
== [[Web Original]] ==
* [[SCP Foundation|SCP-]][http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-169 169]. It's probably bigger than Europe.
** The [[SCP Foundation]] has plans of varying effectiveness to contain and/or prevent everything from multiple zombie apocalypses to holes in reality that periodically spew monsters. Their plan for this? When you cut through the formal scientific sounding terminology, it amounts to "Hope to hell it doesn't wake up, and if it does, hope it's friendly. The thing is just too damn big to do anything about."
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* Three members of [[The League of STEAM]] recount their encounters with a Kraken in "[[Tall Tails]]."
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* In an episode of ''[[Martin Mystery]]'', a Leviathan was guarding a treasure and attacked anyone who tried to steal it.
* On ''[[Catscratch]]'', Gordon goes hunting for the Kraken, who will supposedly grant a wish to whomever would defeat it in battle. In a later episode, the Kraken is revealed to be from another dimension.
* [[Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas]] features a leviathan which the crew mistake for an island, complete with vegetation. {{spoiler|It isn't actually aggressive, and is actually quite useful, as they can use it to tow the ship where they need to go.}} This leviathan gets points for being one of the comparatively few depictions that actually ''is'' big enough to be reasonably mistaken for an island.
== Other Media ==
* [[Steampunk]]s often talk about how their [[Cool Airship|airships]] are in danger of attack by Air Kraken.
==
* Whales, [[Captain Obvious|obviously]].
** There's a fossil whale species named ''[[wikipedia:Livyatan melvillei|Livyatan melvillei]]'' (from the Hebrew spelling of "Leviathan" and the author of ''Moby Dick''). And it is pretty [http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2010/6/30/1277901299026/Artists-impression-of-gia-002.jpg scary-looking].
* For a while researchers theorized that the stories of the Kraken were exaggerations of [[wikipedia:Giant squid|Giant Squid]] sightings, but more recent discoveries might prove that the tales [[Truth in Television|were not so exaggerated]]; specimens as large as eight meters (26 feet) have been caught, and it's theorized they can grow to 10 to 13 meters in total. They've also been shown to display aggressive hunting behaviors, in contrast to the hypothesis that they are slothful drifters.
** Then there's the [http://squid.tepapa.govt.nz/ Colossal Squid]. [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/61/Colossal_squid_caught_in_February_2007.jpg A live specimen was caught in 2007], and initial estimates put its total length at 10 meters (33 feet) long before the tentacles shrank post-mortem. It's theorized that there may be even larger examples of the species in the wild, as the beak of the live specimen was smaller than what they'd found in the stomachs of sperm whales.
*** Another evidence is scars. Giant cephalopods, naturally, fight back unless completely stunned by an attack. This leaves recognizable marks on the sperm whale's hide. The size of some scars is quite impressive, and it can be hard to tell whether one was left when the whale was much younger and stretched with the skin, or it's fairly recent.
* There have always been unpleasantly large cephalopods throughout the history of the world:
** One was ''Cameroceras'', an Ordovician (about 440 million years ago) genus of primitive shelled cephalopods which had long, conical shells ranging from 3 to 11 feet in length.
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** From the Niobraran Sea, of Cretaceous Kansas, we have ''Tusoteuthis'', a 20 to 35 foot long (with tentacles outstretched) relative of the modern-day vampire squid. Of course, it was not even close to being the worst of the worst of the denizens of the Niobraran: a fossil of a predatory salmon, ''Cimolichthys'', showed that the beast choked to death while trying to swallow a ''Tusoteuthis'', tailfirst.
* Much is made about how the bus-sized, 20-foot placoderm fish ''Dunkleosteus'' was the world's first vertebrate superpredator. It's often mentioned that ''Dunkleosteus'' ' bite was among the strongest of any vertebrate living or extinct, and that it was a [[Big Eater|voracious cannibal]]. What isn't mentioned is how Big D had several, equally voracious relatives, including the evocatively named ''Dinichthys'' and ''Gorgonichthys'', who were only slightly smaller (by about a few feet, or so). And then there was the 30 foot long ''Titanichthys'', the largest placoderm ever, though, it was a [[Gentle Giant|basking shark-like plankton eater]] with "ineffectual mouthplates."
* Then there's the ''Liopleurodon''. It stalked the seas of the mid to late Jurassic. Its maximum size is controversial, but modern estimates are in the
** ''"[[Charlie the Unicorn|It's a]] '''[[Charlie the Unicorn|magical]]''' [[Charlie the Unicorn|Liopleurodon!]]"''
* Also, the Mosasaurs of the Cretaceous, which were about as close to the mythical sea-serpents as you can get.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Sea Monster]]
[[Category:Bigger Is Better]]
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[[Category:Steampunk Index]]
[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]
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