Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals:South Africa 260 Million Years Ago

When the continents came together to form a giant landmass called Pangaea, the climate became drier and animals with compact mammal-like bodies and a less sprawling posture (like the "high walk" of crocodiles today) replaced the lizard-like creatures of the early permian. In South Africa the climate was cool with patches of ice at higher altitudes. Titanosuchus and Lycaenops were gorgonopsids - mammal like predators. Lycaenops was a lightly built hunter with dog-like teath. Titanosuchus was a saber-toothed carnivore that specialized in large prey like the saber-toothed mammals of the Miocene and Pleistocene. Their prey included large plant-eating mammal-like reptiles and armored pareiasaurs.

Moschops - a giant plant eater

Tapinocephalus - another giant plant-eater

Titanosuchus - a large, fanged predator

Lycaenops - lightly-built dog-toothed predator

Bradysaurus - an armored pareiasaur