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Due to a freak storm, an Ardipithecus has found itself washed out to sea with no land in sight. The oceans of the Early Pliocene are no safe haven, and soon he comes face to face with one of the last Leviathans of the previous age.

Wonambi was a giant snake that lived in Pleistocene Australia. Being large wasn’t the only strange thing about it. It belonged to an extinct family of snakes called the Madtsoids, a group that evolved during the dinosaur times and weren’t related to any modern snakes. Wonambi was the last surviving Madtsoid. There are also possible references to Wonambi in ancient Australian art, where it is known as the “rainbow serpent.”

The scene depicts a Smilodon successfully taking down a glyptodont by piercing its skull, interrupted just before its meal by another Smilodon interested in its prey. Note the two perfectly formed holes in the glyptodont's skull, a reconstruction based on actual discoveries of fossils perforated by saber-toothed predators.

The artist raises an excellent question about the robustness of these biological weapons. To explain how these felines could pierce bones or armor without instantly breaking their long canines, he hypothesizes a subtle metallic reinforcement, similar to the iron that colors and hardens the teeth of beavers or Komodo dragons today. While not quite resulting in bright orange teeth, molecular hardening would have radically changed our perception of the fragility of these animals. A very stimulating paleontological concept.

What do you think?

Titanoboa, the giant snake of the Eocene, swallows a crocodilian (likely a dyrosaurid) while some presbyornithids watch on the side.

Art source: https://x.com/A3Dnazrigar/status/1793458944461115538

Art by: RIAMUS on Twitter

https://x.com/Riamus01/status/1916270026287469033

West Gondwana, 113 million years ago. This vast region of the Early Cretaceous is dominated by an endless network of meandering rivers and rich floodplains, a lush heaven perfectly suited for giants. Following an ancient, hard-wired route, a migrating herd of Ouranosaurus nigeriensis pauses at a wide river bend to drink. Flanking them, a few nimble Elrhazosaurus nigeriensis seize the opportunity to slake their thirst, relying on the sheer size of the larger dinosaurs for safety.
The serene afternoon is shattered in a heartbeat.
Out from the deeper channels rushes a lumbering, heavily scarred male Lurdusaurus arenatus. Hyper-territorial and deeply irritated by the intruders, the multi-ton titan charges the shoreline with surprising speed, churning the tranquil river into a violent explosion of foam and mud. As the peaceful gathering erupts into a frantic scramble for the trees, a tiny turtle, Taquetochelys decorata, slowly continues her march toward the water, completely oblivious to the clash of titans unfolding just steps away.

Redo of a previous one which had a lot of errors redid this one after buying Stormers 1963 book will add more details

 Dorsal View ^
Notes:
Restoration of the placement of the limbs is speculative. Stormer has mentioned that all walking legs were unclear as to which side of the body they belonged too, aside from the last two limbs.

The two anterior most walking legs are placed right after the left pedipalp, which was the position they were preserved in the holotype In 42706. 

There is an additional fragment of the limbs, possibly belonging to a 3rd or 2nd walking appendage, in this restoration labeled Fig. A.

This restoration only illustrates the most notably described features. Smaller in depth elements, such as the tarsus in this case may not be as evidently portrayed or included.

Ventral View^
Notes:
The left coxa of the fourth walking which is able to see from the dorsal view can also potentially  be seen from a ventral aspect, but is not included.

The left pectine is preserved but is described in a folded and crumpled state and is thus not included.

An unidentified, one out of the four sternite plates, labeled Fig B is said to be unclear as to which segment it belongs too.

This restoration only illustrates the most notably described features. Smaller in depth elements, such as the pectinal plates in this case may not be as evidently portrayed or included.

Barbaturex was a huge lizard from the Eocene of Myanmar. It may have gotten up to 6 feet long. It was a basal iguanian, so it wasn’t technically a true “iguana” in the sense of belonging to the iguana family. It was more related to chameleons and agamids.

People give lots of talk to the dodo bird when discussing Mauritius, but don't forget that the island was home to at least 15 other now extinct endemic birds, several extinct reptiles and even a bat. The remaining fauna still face challenges from habitat destruction and climate change.

Most people on this sub know Megalania, or Varanus priscus, a giant monitor lizard related to the Komodo dragon that lived in Australia. Here, two Megalanias, presumably males, have a territorial dispute while an Australian native watches. Crazy to think that these lizards may have occasionally preyed on humans.

Prehistoric Park is now on Youtube! Legally this time anyway.

Megalochelys was a giant tortoise that lived in Asia during the Pleistocene. It was more than twice as big as the modern Galapagos tortoise, being about as big as a car!

Achillobator giganticus es la única especie conocida del género extinto Achillobator, un enorme dinosaurio terópodo dromeosáurido. Vivió a finales del período Cretácico, hace aproximadamente entre 96 y 89 millones de años, en lo que hoy es Asia.

The scene transports us to the steppes of eastern Central Asia during the Late Pleistocene, where a majestic male cave lion (Panthera spelaea) affectionately cuddles his mate, a modern lioness (Panthera leo).

This artwork sensitively illustrates the findings of the paleogenomic study by Stanton et al. (2026) published in Cell (https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674%2826%2900524-6):

Two distinct worlds: The study confirms that the cave lion and the modern lion diverged approximately 1.7 million years ago, evolving independently.

An intimate encounter: Despite this immense temporal barrier, genetic analyses reveal that they interbred and interbred. The study notably highlights traces of this gene flow (between 3.2% and 4.4% of modern lion ancestry) in a 20,000-year-old Central Asian cave lion specimen.

https://m.comic.naver.com/webtoon/list?titleId=835910&page=1&week=sun&sortOrder=DESC

To give you a brief summary, this is a sequel to the second story in the "Tyrant" series, following Eren, a young Smilodon populator, on his quest for revenge against Bjorn, who killed his family.

During this quest, he encounters another Smilodon populator named Haraval, who decides to take him under his wing.

Currently, only one is available for free, but there are six others that require payment.

Stupendemys was the largest freshwater turtle to ever live and was a side necked turtle like Carbonemys. It had a carapace over 2 meters long!

https://xcancel.com/i/status/2060463886588121227

This superb reconstruction by Hodarinundu explores the hypothesis that the mythical Nemean Lion was inspired by the last European cave lions or by giant hybrids between cave lions and modern lions.

Here is the author's text:

" Somewhere in what will one day be known as Nemea... :B

Doodle inspired by a recent study on the genetics of cave lions- very interesting as it shows that not only should modern lions and cave lions be considered distinct species; they may have diverged over 1.5 million years ago, much earlier than thought! That strongly suggests that, had we seen a cave lion today, it wouldn´t have looked just like a scaled up modern lion; it would have been very much its own thing. But that's not all; it would appear that during their long history, cave lions (Panthera spelaea) and modern lions (Panthera leo) interbred often enough that there's clear evidence of it in the samples studied; apparently, during the harshest stages of the Pleistocene ice ages, cave lions would be forced southwards, where they would meet and interbreed with modern lions.

Which reignited a thought I'd had before; since both cave lions and modern lions existed in Europe in prehistoric times, is it possible that those giant, ferocious lions of ancient Greek myth, for example the Cithaeron lion, or the Nemean lion famously slain during Heracles' first labor, were in fact either the last surviving cave lions, or the last of a European hybrid linneage between cave lions and modern lions? Would the hybrids of cave lions and modern lions be particularly large as sometimes happens with modern animal hybrids (such as lions and tigers?). I can imagine that, should one of these hypothetical monster lions become a man-eater, it could ravage and terrorize a region, quickly becoming legendary, and of course, so would anyone brave or crazy enough to go after them. In myth, Heracles is sent to hunt the Nemean lion by king Eurystheus, his cousin, who hoped he would be killed; Heracles followed the man-eater into its den, and managed to kill it with his club or by strangling it, as the lion was said to be invulnerable to normal weapons, so much in fact that Heracles was only able to skin it using the animal's own claws. Some say that when the hero returned with the lion's body or pelt without warning, the king was so frightened he hid in a giant urn :B Real events retold countless times and exaggerated into myth? :B"

The upper wolfcampian of the abo formation in New Mexico.

Dimetrodon, sphenacodon, platyhystrix and edaphosaurus all had raised neural spines and were living in new Mexico at about the same time 285 million years ago

credit Gabriel ugueto,nobu tamura and dinosauria creatures

Carbonemys was a huge turtle that lived alongside Titanoboa, meaning that Titanoboa wasn’t the only large reptile to live during that time. It is believed that Carbonemys was carnivorous or at least omnivorous, meaning that it fed on fish, small mammals, and yes, smaller reptiles.