Andrewsarchus was the largest carnivorous land mammal ever.

Meaning of scientific name
"Andrews' beast" - after palaeontologist Roy Chapman Andrews.

Pronunciation of scientific name
and-rooz-ARK-uss

Statistics
Andrewsarchus had a skull of about 83cm, which would make it about 1.8m high and 5m long - the largest meat-eating land mammal ever.

Physical description
Andrewsarchus was a carnivorous hoofed mammal known from only one skull. The skull is characteristic of its closest relatives, the mesonychids, who all have a dog-like shape with long, powerful jaws.

Distribution
An Andrewsarchus skull has been found in Mongolia.

Habitat
They lived on the shores, river banks and plains of Asia.

Diet
Andrewsarchus probably scavenged along the water.s edge. Their teeth and jaws were very strong and so apparently had a diet including a lot of hard items such as bone and turtle shell.

Behaviour
The fossils of the group most closely related to Andrewsarchus - the mesonychids - are usually found singly, and around water, and this attachment to water became greatly exaggerated in one group of its relatives which eventually became entirely marine - the whales. It is thought that they were solitary animals.

Conservation status
Extinct.

History
They lived 60-32 million years ago.

Best place to see
Natural History Museum.

Closest relative
Their closest living relatives are the modern whales and cloven-hoofed animals (artiodactyls)