Of the 21 SNP MPs to lose their seats, by far the most prominent were Alex Salmond, the former Scottish First Minister, and the party's depute leader Angus Robertson.
SNP firebrand Alex Salmond lost his seat to Colin Clark of the Conservative Party by 2,500 votes.
"The SNP has emerged as the leading party in Scottish politics once again at Westminster, it's a significant feat for us to have achieved for the second election in succession, but there are clearly issues we have to address as a outcome".
Angus Robertson, who was SNP leader in the House of Commons, lost his seat to Tory MP Douglas Ross in a surprise coup for the Tories.
Mr Ross, who is now an MSP at Holyrood and also a professional football referee, overturned his rival's majority of 9,065 to win the constituency.
The Tories were confident of a revival north of the border after their success in last year's Scottish Parliament elections and leader Ruth Davidson's popular campaign against a second referendum.
Black became the youngest MP when she won the seat in 2015 at the age of 20, ousting then Labour shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander.
The SNP appeared to have suffered a backlash against Ms Sturgeon's plans for a second independence referendum, although it was set to remain the largest party in Scotland. "People across Scotland don't want another divisive independence referendum and Nicola Sturgeon has gone from being a figurehead in Scotland to being somebody that ordinary voters across Scotland deeply dislike".
The Tories picked up one of their top target seats, with former MSP John Lamont defeating the SNP's Calum Ross to win Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk.
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The Tories and Labour have both taken seats from the SNP, with veteran nationalist Mike Weir ousted by the Conservatives.
But her unionist opponents believed there was little enthusiasm among Scots to revisit the independence issue so soon after the 55-45 vote in 2014 against leaving the United Kingdom, and Sturgeon's own timetable for it perceptibly slipped during the election campaign to a more distant and less precise date, once the process of Brexit was complete.
In his speech, Mr Salmond said: "The SNP has lost a number of fineparliamentarians this evening, that is a grievous blow for us".
The nationalists had swept the board in 2015, winning 56 of the 59 seats up for grabs.
Gerard Killen claimed the seat for Jeremy Corbyn's party with 19,101 votes, defeating the SNP's Margaret Ferrier, who won the constituency in 2015 but who polled 18,836 votes this time round.
Speaking to the BBC, Sturgeon said: "I'm not going to rush to hasty judgements or decisions, but clearly there's thinking for me to do about the SNP result ..."
There were also Conservative gains from the SNP in Banff and Buchan, Aberdeen South and Aberdeenshire West and Kincardine.
There were several reassuring victories but with a reduced share of the vote for Sturgeon, with Mhairi Black holding Paisley and Renfrewshire South.
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