.

These guys roamed the Karoo 250 million years ago....followed by the mass extinction to become the very fossil fuel that we are seeking?

"the new species from Brazil is very closely related to a South Africa dinocephalian known as Australosyodon which we discovered on a farm close to Prince Albert Road in the southern Karoo in the late 1980's".

http://www.timeslive.co.za/scitech/2012/01/17/palaeontologists-find-south-america-s-oldest-predator