Judging by its massive, bone-crushing teeth, giant skull and powerful jaw, there is no doubt that the Anteosaurus, a premammal reptile that roamed the continent of Africa 265 to 260 million years ago – during a period that known as the Middle Permian – was a ferocious carnivore.
Although previously thought that this animal of a creature – about the size of an adult hippopotamus or rhino and with a thick crocodile tail – was too heavy and sluggish to be an effective hunter, a new study showed that the Anteosaurus would be able to efficiently extract, locate and kill its prey.
Despite its name and fierce appearance, Anteosaurus is not a dinosaur, but rather belongs to the dinosaurs – mammal-like reptiles that precede the dinosaurs. Like the dinosaurs, dinosaurs roamed the earth in the past, but they originated, thrived, and died about 30 million years before the first dinosaur even existed.
The petrified bones of Dinocephalians are found in many parts of the world. They stand out due to their large size and heavy weight. Dinocephalian bones are thick and dense, and Anteosaurus is no exception. The skull of the Anteosaurus was adorned with large bushes (buds and bumps) above the eyes and a long crest on top of the snout which, in addition to its enlarged canines, made its skull look like that of a ferocious creature. Due to the heavy architecture of its skeleton, it has previously been assumed that it is a rather sluggish, slow-moving animal that is at best only capable of removing or attracting its prey.
“Some scientists have even suggested that Anteosaurus was so heavy that it could only live in water,” says Dr Julien Benoit of the Evolutionary Studies Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits University).
By digitally reconstructing the skull of the Anteosaurus using X-ray imaging and 3D reconstructions, a team of researchers examined the internal structures of the skull and found that the specific properties of its brain and balance organs were so developed that it was anything but moving slowly.
“Agile predators such as cheetahs or the infamous Velociraptor have always had a highly specialized nervous system and sensory organs that enable them to detect and hunt effectively,” says Benoit. “We wanted to find out if the Anteosaurus has similar adaptations.”
The team found that the organ of balance in Anteosaurus (its inner ear) was relatively larger than that of its immediate relatives and other contemporary predators. This indicates that Anteosaurus was able to move much faster than its prey and competitors. They also found that the part of the brain responsible for coordinating the eye’s movements with the head is extremely large, which would be an important trait to ensure the animal’s detection ability.
“In accomplishing the most complete reconstruction of an Anteosaurus skull to date, we have found that the nervous system of Anteosaurus is generally optimized and specialized to hunt and strike fast, contrary to what was previously believed,” says Dr. Ashley Kruger of Natural History. Museum in Stockholm, Sweden and formerly of Wits University.
“Although Anteosaurus lived 200 million years before the famous dinosaur Tyrannosaurus rex, Anteosaurus was certainly not a ‘primitive’ being, and was nothing less than a powerful prehistoric killing machine,” says Benoit.
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