Roy Chapman Andrews' Champion

When Henry Fairfield Osborn named Andrewsarchus mongoliensis in honor of Roy Chapman Andrews, he did not realize how long it would take for the general public to recognize and love the truly strange fossil mammal. Andrewsarchus was an artiodactyl (related to giraffes, bison, and similar animals) which makes it even more intriguing when one finds out that Andrewsarchus was a voracious predator. This assertion is based on the single known skull which sports a snout totaling about 60% of the entire skull. That snout is loaded with sharp mammalian teeth. Osborn compared that snout and skull to a number of other carnivores in his initial description. Osborn also declared that the skull of Andrewsarchus belonged to the largest terrestrial mammalian carnivore ever. It may have been.