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Description
An epic redux of my reconstruction of Anteosaurus Magnificus, the largest terrestrial carnivore in all of the Permian period.

This was was quite a biggie. I've been wanting to do this for a while, and I had a few friends help me through it with its conception. Nonetheless, it turned out pretty well in my opinion. I tried making this a scene that portrays how much power this animal had over all the other resident predators.

Anteosaurus was to Karoo like Tyrannosaurus was to Hell Creek, so I wanted to make this thing look tyrannical. Here I portrayed it with mesothermy, which is highly plausible due to the presence of mammal-like vascularization in its bones. It doesn't have quite as high of a metabolic rate as mammals today, but I'd imagine that its core temperature is always slightly higher than that of the surrounding environment. At default, it's body temperature would be roughly similar to that of a tree sloth. But during winter, it's core emperature and metabolism would probably increase exponentially, as indicated by the warm breath leaving it's mouth. I thought it would be especially terrifying to encounter this thing on a winter day, so this piece takes place during one of Karoo's ice age winters. Similarly to doliosauriscus, I would imagine this thing would mark it's territory by clawing into trees and spraying a foul musk.

Those two other animals are a pair of Pristerognathus, a smaller carnivore a bit lower on Karoo food chain. Being therocephalians, they would have likely had a venomous bite and a much faster metabolism. A single bite is enough to kill smaller prey instantly, or even paralyze an animal as large as Tapinocephalus. But even then, they would have likely been no match for Anteosaurus. Unless they could land a good bite, they would stand very little of a chance. Typically Pristerognathus are predators that hunt small animals and sometimes larger herbivores in pairs, but they would also scavenge from other kills. However, this powerful, 72 year old male Anteosaurus refuses to share his kill (a Moschops calf) with these two particular brothers. They try to scare him off by baring their syringe-like fangs, but it has become quite clear that this elderly tyrant isn't ever going to give up what he worked for.

Description
An epic redux of my reconstruction of Anteosaurus Magnificus, the largest terrestrial carnivore in all of the Permian period.

This was was quite a biggie. I've been wanting to do this for a while, and I had a few friends help me through it with its conception. Nonetheless, it turned out pretty well in my opinion. I tried making this a scene that portrays how much power this animal had over all the other resident predators.

Anteosaurus was to Karoo like Tyrannosaurus was to Hell Creek, so I wanted to make this thing look tyrannical. Here I portrayed it with mesothermy, which is highly plausible due to the presence of mammal-like vascularization in its bones. It doesn't have quite as high of a metabolic rate as mammals today, but I'd imagine that its core temperature is always slightly higher than that of the surrounding environment. At default, it's body temperature would be roughly similar to that of a tree sloth. But during winter, it's core emperature and metabolism would probably increase exponentially, as indicated by the warm breath leaving it's mouth. I thought it would be especially terrifying to encounter this thing on a winter day, so this piece takes place during one of Karoo's ice age winters. Similarly to doliosauriscus, I would imagine this thing would mark it's territory by clawing into trees and spraying a foul musk.

Those two other animals are a pair of Pristerognathus, a smaller carnivore a bit lower on Karoo food chain. Being therocephalians, they would have likely had a venomous bite and a much faster metabolism. A single bite is enough to kill smaller prey instantly, or even paralyze an animal as large as Tapinocephalus. But even then, they would have likely been no match for Anteosaurus. Unless they could land a good bite, they would stand very little of a chance. Typically Pristerognathus are predators that hunt small animals and sometimes larger herbivores in pairs, but they would also scavenge from other kills. However, this powerful, 72 year old male Anteosaurus refuses to share his kill (a Moschops calf) with these two particular brothers. They try to scare him off by baring their syringe-like fangs, but it has become quite clear that this elderly tyrant isn't ever going to give up what he worked for.