Anteosaurus

Common card · No. 403365

Anteosaurus is an extinct genus of large carnivorous dinocephalian synapsid. It lived at the end of the Guadalupian (Middle Permian) during the Capitanian age, about 262 to 260 million years ago, in what is now South Africa. It is mainly known from cranial remains and few postcranial bones found in rocks of the Tapinocephalus Assemblage Zone. Measuring 5–6 m (16–20 ft) long and weighing about 600 kg (1,300 lb), Anteosaurus was the largest known carnivorous non-mammalian synapsid and the largest terrestrial predator of the Permian period. Occupying the top of the food chain in the Middle Permian, its skull, jaws and teeth show adaptations to capture large prey, such as giant titanosuchid and tapinocephalid dinocephalians and large pareiasaurs. As in many other dinocephalians the cranial bones of Anteosaurus are pachyostosed (thickened), but to a lesser extent than those of tapinocephalid dinocephalians. In Anteosaurus, pachyostosis mainly occurs in the form of supraorbital protuberances...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Iziko South African Museum in July, 2018 – 53.jpg: Jnanaranjan sahu derivative work: Taxon34, CC BY-SA 4.0