The skull of the “scary head” was found (2 photos)

These giant predators lived in South America 265 million years ago





Dinosaurs have a reputation as the largest and most ferocious predators in the history of the Earth. However, a new discovery made by the international by a team of scientists, forces these ideas to be reconsidered.

In their article published in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, researchers write that 40 million years before dinosaurs appeared on the planet, Pampaphoneus biccai hunted in the vast expanses of South America. a giant bloodthirsty predator belonging to the group of deinocephals, which translated from Greek as “terrible-headed”. This is the name deinocephals received a strange appearance due to their massive, lumpy skulls forms.

These rather primitive creatures lived on the planet in Permian period, just before the mass extinction, during which 86% of living beings on Earth died. Before this disaster, deinocephalians were one of the largest groups of land animals.

The surprisingly well-preserved skull of Pampaphoneus biccai, despite the passage of 265 million years and several bones of his skeleton were found in rural areas in the south Brazil. This is only the second such discovery in the South America. Basically, the remains of deinocephalians are found in South Africa and in Cis-Urals.



As the study's lead author, Professor Felipe Pinheiro, explains, Pampaphoneus biccai played the same role in the ecological system of those times as modern large representatives of the cat family. He had big, sharp teeth, and judging by the structure of his jaws and skull, he was capable of Easily bite through the bones of prey.

Hunted Pampaphoneus biccai for small and medium animals such as dicynodonts and amphibians. Newly found specimen was not the largest - according to scientists, Pampaphoneus biccai could reach three meters in length, and their weight could be 400 kilograms.