Even though dinosaurs have been the biggest creatures ever to have walked the surface of the Earth, they are not necessarily the most dangerous ones, as well. That latter title could belong to another imposing beast that has ignited fear into the hearts of its victims.
Anteosaurus may sound like a fancy name for video game bosses, but we’re actually talking about the name of a ferocious beast with big jaws that didn’t hesitate to devour its meals while they were still alive. CNET.com speaks about the new research regarding the prehistoric killing machine – although it was once considered to be sluggish, scientists from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in South Africa are now evaluating it as a successful hunter-killer.
Anteosaurus had their glory moments around 260 million years ago
The beasts weren’t too large, as they measured just about the same size as hippos. Their species lived for a very long time, though: until about 30 million years before the first dinosaurs were born. Paleontologist Ashley Kruger declared:
In creating the most complete reconstruction of an Anteosaurus skull to date, we found that overall, the nervous system of Anteosaurus was optimized and specialized for hunting swiftly and striking fast, unlike what was previously believed.
The favorite place of the terrible beasts was in today’s Africa hundreds of millions of years ago.
Co-author Julien Benoit shares another interesting view of the imposing hunters:
Even though Anteosaurus lived 200-million years before the famous dinosaur Tyrannosaurus rex, Anteosaurus was definitely not a ‘primitive’ creature, and was nothing short of a mighty prehistoric killing machine.
As for the dinosaurs, they went extinct about 65 million years ago, and there is still some dispute about the possible cause. However, the most accepted theory is that the huge beasts were killed by a huge asteroid or comet that smashed into the Earth in today’s Chicxulub crater from Mexico.
