[ Life reconstruction of Pampaphoneus biccai by Márcio Castro. ]
"Dinosaurs have quite the reputation for being the largest, fiercest predators in life's history. Yet, 40 million years before dinosaurs ruled, Pampaphoneus biccai dominated South America as the biggest and most bloodthirsty meat eater of its time. In a new study published in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, an international team of researchers reveal the astounding discovery of a 265-million-year-old, exquisitely preserved fossil species, Pampaphoneus biccai, found in the rural area of São Gabriel, Southern Brazil. The stunning fossil includes a complete skull and some skeletal bones, such as ribs and arm bones. Pampaphoneus, which belongs to the early therapsid clade called dinocephalians, lived just before the largest extinction event in the history of Earth that eliminated 86% of all animal species worldwide. Before the extinction event, dinocephalians were one of the major groups of large terrestrial animals that thrived on land. They were medium to large-sized creatures with both carnivorous and herbivorous representatives. Dinocephalians had thick cranial bones, which led to the group's name which translates to "terrible head" in Greek. While well-known in South Africa and Russia, these animals are rare in other parts of the world. Pampaphoneus biccai is the only known species in Brazil."
Read more: "265-million-year-old fossil reveals oldest, largest predator in South America, long before the rise of dinosaurs" from Harvard University.
