Leopard-sized predator that roamed the Earth BEFORE the dinosaurs is found using Google maps
A fearsome fanged reptile that roamed the Earth about 265 million years ago - before the age of the dinosaurs - has been unearthed in southern Brazil by scientists.
The skull of the predator was dug up from a farm in the pampas plains of Rio Grande do Sul in southern Brazil, after scientists spotted a bare patch on Google Maps and flew over to investigate.
The dog-sized predator lived about 40 million years before the dinosaurs - and belonged to a family of reptiles that died out, leaving no descendants.
Pampaphoneus hunting a pareiasaur: The remains, found in Brazil, are of a predator that roamed the plains before the dinosaurs
The Pampaphonius skull found by Dr Julian Cisneros, with a drawing showing what the complete skull would have looked like. The predator would have stalked other animals
Named Pampaphoneus biccai, it was a dinocephalian - a member of the family of anteosaurs that looked like dinosaurs but died out before the dinosaurs arrived.
