Anteosaurus

Anteosaurus is an extinct genus of large carnivorous dinocephalian synapsid. It lived at the end of the Guadalupian 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.

Anteosaurus

Iziko South African Museum in July, 2018 – 53.jpg : Jnanaranjan sahu derivative work: Taxon34 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
AnteosaurinaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At most 47 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 298.9 Mya and 251.902 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Carboniferous — about 0 of 21 occurrencesPermian — about 21 of 21 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 0 of 21 occurrences300–298 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences298–297 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences297–295 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences295–293 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences293–292 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences292–290 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences290–288 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences288–287 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences287–285 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences285–284 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences284–282 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences282–280 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences280–279 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences279–277 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences277–275 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences275–274 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences274–272 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences272–271 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences271–269 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences269–267 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences267–266 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences266–264 Mya — about 1 occurrence264–262 Mya — about 7 occurrences262–261 Mya — about 7 occurrences261–259 Mya — about 4 occurrences259–257 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences257–256 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences256–254 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences254–253 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences253–251 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences299.8 Mya251 Mya

21 occurrences of Anteosaurus on record, most of them in the Permian. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

21 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

2 formations

Abrahamskraal — 32.91°S, 22.03°EAbrahamskraal — 32.46°S, 21.86°EAbrahamskraal — 32.70°S, 21.75°EAbrahamskraal — 32.50°S, 22.30°EAbrahamskraal — 32.49°S, 22.17°EKoonap — 33.06°S, 26.39°E

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The named rock units Anteosaurus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 14 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Anteosaurus and its relatives

Permian

Where Anteosaurus and its relatives were recorded in the Permian.

Found in the same rock

28 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 15 sites for Anteosaurus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

5 references

Each of the 21 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.

Media and terms

Media content3

Picture of Anteosaurus

Credit
Iziko South African Museum in July, 2018 – 53.jpg : Jnanaranjan sahu derivative work: Taxon34
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Structured light scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Anteosaurus magnificus · NHMUK:PAL:PV R 5742

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itAnteosaurinae through timeFormations of the PermianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Watson 1921