You are in the riverbanks of South Africa, 250 million years ago.

The air was thick and humid, tasting of copper and prehistoric mud. Moving quietly along the banks of the river, you froze. Through the sparse ferns, you saw a group of three, maybe four, Proterosuchus, sprawled across the muddy bank like modern crocodiles, yet strangely… different.

They were about three meters long, their bodies covered in scaly, olive-brown skin. Their most striking feature was that bizarre, hooked overbite, with the premaxilla bending sharply down over the lower jaw. One large male was lying with its jaws wide open, exposing a row of serrated, dagger-like teeth to the morning sun to regulate its temperature.

They were almost motionless, perfectly still, basking in the sun to warm their bodies after a cool Triassic night. Only the occasional blink of their eyes, positioned high on their skulls, gave them away as living creatures rather than logs. They seemed sluggish, almost peaceful. But you knew better. You remembered reading that these weren't just fish-eaters; they were the ambush predators of this world, waiting for a passing Lystrosaurus to get too close to the water’s edge…