Majungasaurus crenatissimus

Majungasaurus crenatissimus (Lavocat, 1955)
Dinosauria
Saurischia
Theropoda
Ceratosauria
Abelisauroidea
Abelisauridae
Majungasaurinae

Late Cretaceous
Madagascar

Length: 8 m

When she's not busy sleeping, Majungasaurus dined on sauropods such as Rapetosaurus and, occasionally, other Majungasaurus.

March 2015

Tylosaurus pembinensis

Tylosaurus pembinensis (Marsh, 1872)

Sauropsida

Diapsida

Lepidosauria

Squamata

Mosasauroidea

Mosasauridae

Tylosaurinae

Late Cretaceous

Central / Western United States

Length: 15 m

More than a century after Cope and Marsh first dug up fossils of this giant squamate, our view of her has changed drastically. We now know that she possessed an asymmetrical tail fluke, was countershaded, lacked a dorsal crest, and is most likely more closely related to monitor lizards than she is to snakes.

March 2015

Carcharodontosaurus iguidensis

Carcharodontosaurus iguidensis (Brusatte & Sereno, 2007)
Dinosauria
Saurischia
Theropoda
Tetanurae
Carnosauria
Allosauroidea
Carcharodontosauridae

Early - Late Cretaceous
North Africa

Length: 10 - 13 m

One of the largest carnivores to ever walk the Earth, she has evolved serrated blade-like teeth, adapted to slicing through flesh with ease.

March 2015

Basilosaurus isis

Basilosaurus isis (Andrews, 1904)
Mammalia
Theria
Eutheria
Laurasiatheria
Artiodactyla
Whippomorpha
Cetacea
Basilosauridae

Late Eocene
Egypt and Jordan

12 - 20 m

This ancient predatory whale's strange name comes from the fact that its bones were initially thought to belong to some sort of enormous non-avian sauropsid (reptile for those less cladistically inclined).

February 28th, 2015

UPDATE: Shortly after I published this post, a new paper came out showing that Basilosaurus had the strongest bite force of any known mammal (over 3,600 pounds at its upper third premolar), enough to break open the skulls of juvenile Dorudon, another (smaller) ancient whale.
Source: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0118380

Deinotherium bozasi

Deinotherium bozasi (Arambourg, 1934)
Mammalia
Afrotheria
Paenungulata
Proboscidea
Deinotheriidae

Late Miocene to Early Pleistocene
Africa

Height: 5 m at the shoulder

Up until around a million years ago, our ancestors in Africa walked in the shadows of one of the largest land mammals of all time.

February 21st, 2015

Titanoboa cerrejonensis

Titanoboa cerrejonensis (Head et al., 2009)
Sauropsida
Diapsida
Lepidosauria
Squamata
Serpentes
Boidae
Boinae

Paleocene
Colombia

Length: 13 m

The largest snake of all time prowled the swamps of South America a mere 5 million years after the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs.

February 8th, 2015

Hatzegopteryx thambema

Hatzegopteryx thambema (Buffetaut, Grigorescu & Csiki, 2002)
Sauropsida
Diapsida
Archosauria
Avemetatarsalia
Pterosauria
Pterodactyloidea
Azhdarchoidea
Azhdarchidae

Late Cretaceous
Romania

Wingspan: 11 m

Standing as tall as a giraffe and tied with Quetzalcoatlus for being the largest flying animal ever, this giant of the skies towered above all other denizens of Hateg Island, an island of dwarf dinosaurs.

January 21st, 2015