Long before Tyrax, Earth was ruled by super-predators that were even stranger and scarier than anything Hollywood had depicted.

Long before Tyrax, Earth was ruled by super-predators that were even stranger and scarier than anything Hollywood had depicted.

The two animals surrounded each other and both appreciated the strong and lean body of their opponents. With saber teeth like butcher knives, sharp claws and skin as thick as a rhinoceros, they opened their jaws almost 90 degrees and entered the battle. From the right side of one of the animals, knock other teeth from top to bottom. In the blink of an eye, it's all over. By plunging his long fangs into his opponent's cubic snout, like hot needles through wax, the attacker claimed victory. This or something like it really happened.

About a quarter of a billion years later, on a sunny day in March 2021, Julien Benoit was given a box to look at. He worked in a cozy and cool office at the Isiko Museum of Natural History in Cape Town, South Africa, where he was invited to visit the university's fossil collections.

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