A couple of Machairodus got too close to a herd of Anancus. Late Miocene. Bulgaria.
An uninvited guest approaches the small village of mammoth hunters in the New Years eve. Gravettian. Predmosti. Moravia. December 31 22985 BC
Inspired by the frescoes of the Grand Panneau des Lions. Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc Cave, Ardèche. France.
Couple of Machairodus attack Bohlinia attica. Miocene. Greece .
Two male Villafranchian cheetahs Acinonyx pardinensis patrolling their territory. In the vicinity of what is now the town of Varshets. Northwest Bulgaria.
The past and present people and wildlife of Asia
A Sansanosmilus got lucky once , when it was able to catch an unattended piglet of the giant horned pig Kubanochoerus. Then it
got lucky a second time, when it was able to escape the infuriated boars, climbing on a high log. But its luck began running away
when the pigs start to do what they do best - dig. Gansu. Middle Miocene. China.
Maofelis cantonensis. Eocene. China. Averianov, A., E. Obraztsova, I. Danilov, P. Skutschas & Ji. Jin. 2016: First nimravid skull from Asia. Scientific Reports 6
A Miopanthera pamiri, the earliest known Pantherine cat, prefers to retreat swiftly in front of a curious Barbourofelis piveteaui, who is checking out its haunt . Although still relatively small in size Miopanthera pamiri will establish a line of descendants some of which will be among the largest mammalian predators in the Earth history. Late Miocene. Anatolia (Sinap formation). Turkey
Geraads D. & S. Peignel 2016. Re-Appraisal of ‘Felis’ pamiri Ozansoy, 1959 (Carnivora, Felidae) from the Upper Miocene of Turkey: the Earliest Pantherin Cat? Journal of Mammalian Evolution pp 1-11
Couple of Andrewsarchus ripping apart a carcass of Gobiatherium. Eocene . Inner Mongolia.
The past and present people and wildlife of Africa
Oasis in a caravan road in Northern Sahara. 18 Century
Trekbokke - Mass-migration of Springbok . Around 1896 . Kalahari "..... Wild-eyed, panic-stricken, a prey to thirst, afraid of the death behind, indifferent to danger ahead, the leading bucks raced on. They sighted the crouching form and the bared fangs. and swerved never an inch. The leaders, who found the lion and the bush in their way, took them in their stride, others passed the lion right and left...."
Ernest Glanville. "The yellow-maned lion: The story of Ngonyama" New York, Harcourt Brace & Company [1925]
The past and present people and wildlife of North America
The largest cat-like predator of its time the Oxyaenid Patriofelis prefers to let go its prey - a Coryphodon calf ,
when facing the sharp tusks of the angry adults. Normally dispersed across the swamp, Coryphodon quickly
gathered together attracted by the screams of the calf. Smaller than their Paleocene relatives, when together they
are still a quite formidable force with which the predator must comply. Eocene. North America.
The death of the Blue Babe. Pleistocene. Alaska .
“The Fatal one”
Smilodon fatalis
A large male Barbourofelis is scouting its land for prey and competitors. Late Miocene. North America
The past and present people and wildlife of North America
An Argentavis magnificens takes over a Thylacosmilus kill. Miocene. Argentina.
The wonders that inspired imagination
The painting is inspired and roughly based on a story, told to me by one of my university professors. During a visit in Nepal the locals told him the following:
A yak-herder had to spent the night in the mountains with his yaks. He spent the night in a tent, with the yaks nearby outside. When the herdsman woke up in the morning, he found that some of his yaks were lying around dead, with broken spines and the rest were missing. As expected the locals attributed the events to yeti.
The life reconstructions
