STL Science Center

STL Science Center

22 April 2016

Size and Andrewsarchus

How large is the purported largest terrestrial carnivore that ever lived? Andrewsarchus mongoliensis had the largest carnivore-like skull known for a terrestrial animal. At approximately 3 feet long, the skull is absolutely massive for a carnivorous animal, as we see them today. A modern adult tiger has a skull measuring 1.3 feet in length. A tiger is a large predator. Andrewsarchus was a nearly 3 times larger predator, if we assume the body estimate is allometric with the skull. Artistic interpretation of the size estimates of Andrewsarchus look something like this, which is quite impressive:

3 comments:

  1. cool beast i do not know if the size comparison is accurate or not but andrew reached 4 meters not 5

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  2. All this assumption based merely on the one extant skull found in Mongolia? And none others?

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    Replies
    1. Larger (more publicized) discoveries have been published on less material. A skull isn't a bad place to start. That said, none to my knowledge, but there could be more material out there.

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