Pampaphoneus biccai

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About Pampaphoneus biccai:

It belongs to the early therapsid clade called dinocephalians.
It lived just before the largest extinction event in the history of Earth. That event eliminated 86 per cent of all animal species across the globe.
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.
They had thick cranial bones, which led to the group’s name which translates to “terrible head” in Greek.
These animals are rare in other parts of the world but well-known in South Africa and Russia.
It is the only known species in Brazil.

Q1: What are Dinocephalians?

Dinocephalians, also known as Dinocephalia, were a group of extinct prehistoric reptiles that lived during the Permian period, approximately 290 to 260 million years ago. They belong to a larger group called Therapsida, which also includes the ancestors of modern mammals.

Source: The 265-million-year-old fossil belongs to the oldest, largest South American predator before dinosaurs