Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Anteosaurus (meaning "Antaeus lizard") is an extinct genus of large carnivorous dinocephalian synapsid. It lived at the end of the Guadalupian (= Middle Permian) during the Capitanian age, about 265 to 260 million years ago in what is now South Africa. It is mainly known by cranial remains and few postcranial bones.
Anteosaurus overviewing the landscape. The largest carnivorous non-mammalian synapsids was the dinocephalian Anteosaurus, which was 5–6 m (16–20 ft) long, and weighed 500–600 kg (1,100–1,300 lb). [16] [17] Fully grown Titanophoneus from the same family Anteosauridae likely had a skull of 1 m (3.3 ft) long. [17]
Anteosauridae is an extinct family of large carnivorous dinocephalian therapsids that are known from the Middle Permian of Asia, Africa, and South America.These animals were by far the largest predators of the Permian period, with skulls reaching 80 cm in length in adult individuals, far larger than the biggest gorgonopsian.
Rather than the limbs being drawn in under the body, the stance was more sprawling. Olson (1962) notes that the Russian dinocephalian assemblages indicate environments tied to water, and Boonstra considered that the roughly contemporary Anteosaurus was a slinking crocodile-like semi-aquatic form. The long tail, weak limbs, and sprawling posture ...
Dinocephalians were generally large. The biggest herbivores (Tapinocephalus) and omnivores (Titanosuchus) may have weighed up to 2 tonnes (4,400 lb), and were some 4.5 metres (15 ft) long, while the largest carnivores (such as Titanophoneus and Anteosaurus) were at least as long, with heavy skulls 80 centimetres (31 in) long, and overall masses of around a half-tonne.
†Anteosaurus Anteosaurinae is an extinct subfamily of dinocephalian therapsids . It is one of two subfamilies in the family Anteosauridae , the other being Syodontinae .
Figure 1:In mammals, the quadrate and articular bones are small and part of the middle ear; the lower jaw consists only of dentary bone.. While living mammal species can be identified by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands in the females, other features are required when classifying fossils, because mammary glands and other soft-tissue features are not visible in fossils.
Australosyodon is regarded as a very primitive anteosaurid dinocephalian and as first known representative of that group in the southern hemisphere. Like Syodon, Australosyodon lacked the features typical for the more apomorphic members of the anteosauridae, e.g. the boss on the lower mandible found in Anteosaurus or Titanophoneus.