These sea monsters grew upwards of 40 feet (12 meters) long. About half that length was neck, a feature that allowed Styxosaurus to sneak up on schools of fish as it slowly cruised the shallow ...

The basking shark’s scientific name, Cetorhinus maximus, roughly translates to “great-nosed sea monster” in Greek. In reality, these placid sharks, found the world over, are totally harmless.

Pavona clavus, a gigantic coral species that resembles a plant but is actually related to jellyfish and sea anemones, forms ...

Xiphactinus was one of the largest bony fish of the Late Cretaceous and is considered one of the fiercest creatures in the sea. A powerful ... long (5-meter-long) monster through the surface ...

This story appears in the August 2010 issue of National Geographic magazine ... Along with the bones of prehistoric sea monsters, Gingerich has found the remains of unlucky humans.

The short-necked plesiosaur likely had few enemies, but those that attacked were some of the fiercest monsters of the seas, including sharks with razor-sharp teeth and the giant mosasaur Tylosaurus.

This story appears in the October 2017 issue of National Geographic magazine. How close can you really get to two monster squid fighting? Very close, it turns out. This month National Geographic ...