The Anteosauria are distinguished from the Tapinocephalia by several features, such as very large canines, cheek teeth with bulbous crowns, and an upturning of the premaxilla, so that the front of mouth curves strongly upwards.

The early Russian (Boonstra 1972) and Chinese (Rubidge & Sidor 2001) anteosaurs are generally considered the most primitive of the dinocephalians, although it has also been suggested (Kemp, 1982, King 1988) that the estemmenosuchids are more basal.

They have featured in common with pelycosaurs (Carroll 1988) and Biarmosuchians (Chudinov 1965), and, with the Tapinocehalia, are part of the first major evolutionary radiation of the Therapsida (Rubidge & Sidor 2001).

Olson (1962) notes that the Russian dinocephalian assemblages indicate environments tied to water, and Boonstra considered that the roughly contemporary Anteosaurus was a slinking crocodile-like semi-aquatic form.

[1] The large anteosaurs were efficient predators, more specialized than earlier and more primitive biarmosuchid and eotitanosuchid carnivorous therapsids, as the temporal opening behind the eye socket was larger, indicating a greater muscle mass available for closing the lower jaw.

Large pterygoid flanges indicate a well-developed Kinetic-Inertial system in anteosaurs, and increased vertical alignment of the temporalis muscles suggests an expanded Static-Pressure component of the bite cycle.