Before dinosaurs… before T. rex… Earth’s top predator had teeth like daggers and a body built for ambush. ⚔️🦴 Meet Inostrancevia—a saber-toothed hunter that ruled the planet 260 million years ago during the Permian period. It wasn’t a dinosaur, but a mammal-like reptile known as a therapsid—a crucial step on the evolutionary path to mammals, including us. With fangs larger than a wolf’s skull and a muscular body up to 10 feet long, it ambushed prey much like a crocodile does today. Its fossils

On your next walk through campus, look for a striking bronze tribute to an Ice Age predator! Standing outside Texas Science & Natural History Museum, this saber-toothed cat sculpture is 7 feet long and 1.25 times larger than an actual 𝘚𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘰𝘥𝘰𝘯 𝘧𝘢𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘴. With 7-inch canines cast from real fossils in UT’s Texas Vertebrate Paleontology Collections, it brings Texas’ ancient wildlife to vivid life. Created by artist John Maisano and generously gifted by Sarah and Ernest Butler, it’s a c