i´ve seen photos of each actor alongside life-size models of the animals, and i´m curious why they made them so gigantic.










with the Lion King 2019 i don´t know if they are also equally gigantic because are no photos of each actor along with the life-size models in the characters.

in this thread you are free to post ancient animal artifacts:
paintings by zhang shanzi:






a roman mosaic of a lion attacking leopard

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tiger statues, amir temur park, samarkand, uzbekistan:


tiger statue on the road to the tombs of ancient koguryo kingdom, pyongyang. north korea:

does anyone know if it is true that male african Lions are robust than the Tigers? what studies support this claim?

Anatomy of lion:


Anatomy of Tiger:

Sinotyrannus (meaning "Chinese tyrant") is a genus of medium-large basal tyrannosauroid known from a single incomplete fossil specimen including a partial skull, from the Early Cretaceous of China. It is the largest known theropod from the Jiufotang Formation to date. The type species is S. kazuoensis, described by Ji et al., in 2009. The original description of Sinotyrannus proposed that it could have been the earliest tyrannosaurid due to its large size, but subsequent analyses place it as a proceratosaurid tyrannosauroid. The holotype of Sinotyrannus is KZV-001, a disarticulated partial skeleton including the front portion of the skull, three dorsal vertebrae, the incomplete ilia, three articulated manual phalanges (including an ungual), and other fragmentary bones The preserved cranial elements include the premaxilla, dentary, and anterior portions of the maxilla and nasals. The dorsal margin of the maxilla is unusually concave unlike the convex condition in tyrannosaurids. The nares are large and elliptical, supporting its relation to the Proceratosauridae. The dentary gradually curves upwards as it approaches its front edge.
Many teeth are preserved attached to the maxillae, with a roughly equal number of denticles on each side, similarly to those of tyrannosaurids. Sinotyrannus could perceivably have had a tall nasal crest like other proceratosaurids, although not enough of its nasals are preserved to be certain. The three preserved vertebrae have very tall neural spines. The proportions of the preserved manual phalanges support the idea that they belong to the second finger, and the ungual has a deep groove on each side. The ilia are mainly present as molds, with the mold of the external side of the left ilium being the most complete. The preacetabular blade is short and wide, with a massive pubic peduncle, while the postacetabular blade is longer and thinner, with a triangular ischial peduncle.
These traits of the ilia differentiate it from more advanced tyrannosauroids such as the tyrannosaurids. On the whole, the preserved remains suggest an animal with a large skull and large arms/claws for its size, similar to its relatives like Yutyrannus.
With an estimated mean size of 6.5 meters in length and 958 kg in weight based on its relative Yutyrannus, Sinotyrannus was among the largest proceratosaurids known, repudiating the previously presumed trend that tyrannosauroids gradually increased in size throughout the Cretaceous period from small basal forms like Dilong and Guanlong to advanced apex predators such as Tyrannosaurus.

Link.

This discovery suggests that the T. rex specimens Sue and Scotty are no longer the oldest known theropod dinosaurs. A new species of carcharodontosaurid (MMCH-Pv 65, the 'Campanas carcharodontosaurid') seems to beat them both by quite a margin, reaching an age of 50 or more compared to the tyrannosaurids being in their low 30s, and its growth was quite different as well.
While we know that T. rex reached its adult size at 15-18 years old by having very rapid growth spurts of several kilograms a day and then not growing any bigger past that, this carcharodontosaurid is completely different - its growth was very slow throughout its whole lifespan, and only stopped 2-3 years before the animal died. Now while that growth obviously wasn't too slow to actually allow the animal to get as large as it did before it died (given the femoral circumference of 50.3 cm, this specimen is >9.6 tonnes based on the closely related Mapusaurus), that size would have taken quite a while to achieve; based on the >9.6 tonne estimate, the animal would have only grown slightly more than half a kilogram a day as a mean and would have grown about 1/4 as fast as the growth spurts of T. rex.

I think this really shows how diverse some dinosaurs were - despite their very similar ecology as apex predators and similar to significantly greater size than T. rex, what this tells us is that the giant carcharodontosaurids had a completely different way of achieving that giant apex predator spot. And further study of other large theropods may hold more surprises.

Essential Guide for Tiger Safaris in India. Few animals in the world can match the royal demeanor of the Royal Bengal Tiger. When one thinks of Indian Wildlife, neurons begin to fire in one’s brain. It transports you to a chapter of the forest where the ochre kissed catwalks across the forest floor with illustrious grace. While the onlooking herbivores raise an alarm as a sign of caution. But to ensure that you completely optimize your visit to the national park, we’re listing a few essential guidelines to remember before you undertake a tiger safari in India.

Viavenator is an extinct genus of abelisaurid theropod discovered in Argentina. The holotype (MAU-Pv-Ll-530) of the only known species, Viavenator exxoni, was found in the outcrops of the Bajo de la Carpa Formation (Santonian, Upper Cretaceous), northwestern Patagonia, Argentina. It consists of a partially associated skeleton that preserves the neurocranium, complete articulated postorbitals and squamosals, the hyoid bone, an incomplete tooth and fragment of crown, the atlas vertebra, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th to 10th cervical vertebrae, 2nd, 4th, 5th and 7th to 10th dorsal vertebrae, a few caudal vertebrae, the left scapulocoracoid, the ischium, some cervical and dorsal ribs, fragments of gastralia, and one haemal arch. Its genus name translates to 'road hunter', with Via meaning road, and venator hunter in Latin. The species name exxoni is in recognition of Exxonmobil's commitment to the preservation of paleontological heritage of the La Invernada area, Rincon de los Sauces, Patagonia, Argentina. Viavenator was medium sized as abelisaurids go, estimated at 5.6 meters in length and 780 kilograms based on comparison with more complete relatives like Aucasaurus.
It is thought to have been phylogenetically intermediate between older South American abelisaurids like Skorpiovenator and younger species like Carnotaurus, shedding light as a transitional form on how Patagonian abelisaurids evolved. Like most of its cousins, its snout was short and tall and it had vestigial forelimbs, powerful hindlimbs, and a robust build.
This animal would have coexisted with a number of other species, such as a number of lizards and turtles, the snake species Dinilysia patagonica, a diverse amount of crocodylomorphs such as Notosuchus, and other dinosaurs such as the titanosaur Traukutitan, the noasaurid Velocisaurus, the alvarezsaurid Alvarezsaurus, and the giant megaraptoran Tratayenia, which it was likely a subordinate to.

The American crocodile is a species of crocodilian found in the neotropics, it is the most widespread of four crocodiles from the Americas, with populations present from South Florida and the Coast of Mexico to as far south as Peru and Venezuela. The habitat of American crocodile consists largerly of coastal areas, it is also found in river sistems, but tends to prefer salinity, resulting in the species congregating in brackish lakes, mangrove swamps, lagoons, cays, and small islands. 
They are also found in hypersaline lakes, one of the largest known populations inhabits Lago Enriquillo in the Dominican Republic.
The American crocodile is one of the larger crocodile species. Males can reach lengths of 5 meters with larger ones found in Costa Rica, on average mature males are more in the range of 3 to 4,1 meters long, as with other crocodile species females are smaller rarely exceedind 3,8 m.

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*This image is copyright of its original author

Allosaurus is a genus of carnivorous theropod dinosaur that lived 155 to 150 million years ago during the late Jurassic period (Kimmeridgian to early Tithonian), with fossils known from both North America and Europe to date. Allosaurus was fairly typical as large theropods go, having a massive skull on a powerful neck, a counterbalancing tail and strong clawed forelimbs to aid in prey capture. Its hunting and feeding strategy is notable, in which it would have used its strong skull and powerful neck to hack its prey to bits.
A number of species are known and not all of which are formally named, with much variance in size between them. Some species (such as A. jimmadseni, which includes the famous specimen Big Al or MOR 693) would have been large by theropod standards but not immensely so, being in the region of 7.1-7.6 meters and 1.2-1.4 tonnes based on known specimens of adult size. Other species (namely the very well known A. fragilis and also the type) seem to have been 8.5-9.5 meters long and 2-3 tonnes as adults, although this species may have been larger than this. And other species still (eg: A. "amplexus" and A. "maximus", which may or may not belong to already existing species) appear to have reached sizes in the region of 13-14.3 meters and 7.5-10 tonnes as adults, with one such specimen for the former being almost certainly immature despite its size.
Allosaurus is known from a very large number of specimens from hatchlings to adults, and is thus very completely known given the large sample. One of the best quarries for it is the Cleveland-Lloyd quarry in the United States, which preserves a minimum of 46 individuals of every ontogenetic stage. It is hypothesized for the animals to have ended up there during a drought.

Ceratosaurus (meaning 'horned lizard') was a medium-sized species of ceratosaurid theropod known from the Late Jurassic period of the United States, Portugal, Uruguay, and possibly Switzerland and Tanzania as well. The subadult holotype specimen (USNM 4375) is estimated by Gregory S. Paul to be 5 meters long and 524 kilograms, while the specimen UMNH VP 5278 described as C. dentisulcatus (which may simply be an adult of C. nasicornis and therefore a junior synonym of it) was larger, estimated by Paul at 6 meters long and 700 kilograms. Ceratosaurus was known for its proportionally massive head and deep jaws that supported proportionally very long, blade-like teeth, a prominent, ridge-like horn on the midline of the snout, and a pair of horns over the eyes. These horns were likely to have been used for intraspecific displays among individuals.
The forelimbs were very short, but remained fully functional; the hand had four fingers. The tail was deep from top to bottom, and this along with its long teeth has lead some palaeontologists to speculate that it could have been more efficient at feeding on aquatic life than its contemporaries. A row of small osteoderms (skin bones) was present down the middle of the neck, back, and tail. Additional osteoderms were present at unknown positions on the animal's body. 
Within the Morrison Formation where most of its specimens have so far been uncovered, Ceratosaurus fossils are frequently found in association with those of other large theropods, including the megalosauroid Torvosaurus and the allosauroid Allosaurus, but they are sparse in comparison, which may indicate either preservation bias or a much rarer animal on the whole. However, it seems to have been a relatively widespread species across its entire range given that it is known from both North and South America, Europe, and possibly Africa.