I have trampled on a number of cherished childhood memories and sensational claims since I started by career as a science writer. Megarachne was not an enormous spider on the order of Shelob, but a strange sea scorpion. The “terror bird” Titanis was not quite as scary as previously believed. The tiny tyrannosaur Nanotyrannus was probably a juvenile Tyrannosaurus rexa juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex. And the Kraken? Don’t even get me started…

But, despite what you might think given my cheerful deconstruction of sensational paleo scenarios, I do not have a heart of stone. I truly miss some of the terrifying creatures I met during my childhood which