Type of Submission
Poster
Keywords
Permian, Paleontology, Gorgonopsid, Inostrancevia, Taxonomy, Therapsid, Fossil, Russia, Biomechanics, Etymology
Proposal
Gorgonopsids were a group of Therapsids that lived from the mid to late Permian. They were the dominant predators in their ecosystem. Their remains are found primarily in the South African Karoo Basin, and parts of Eastern Russia. Some remains have been reported to exist in China and the USA, but these are extremely fragmentary, so their placement in the gorgonopsia is highly questionable. They descended from the early amniotes that preceded them and radiated into a number of different forms and niches. They bore a number of unique features. Most notably, each possessed a pair of elongated upper canine teeth, likely used in predation. Unfortunately, much of the knowledge base on them is contained in rather old and outdated papers, which makes tracking down easily digestible information on them quite difficult, so that is what has been attempted here. There has been a concerted effort to update and expand the body of research on Gorgonopsids in the past few years, but much work remains to be done. What follows is a brief summary of each of the known genera, their distinguishing characteristics, and some of the potential behavioral and ecological implications of their biology.
Creative Commons License
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A Summary of the Gorgonopsia and its Members
Gorgonopsids were a group of Therapsids that lived from the mid to late Permian. They were the dominant predators in their ecosystem. Their remains are found primarily in the South African Karoo Basin, and parts of Eastern Russia. Some remains have been reported to exist in China and the USA, but these are extremely fragmentary, so their placement in the gorgonopsia is highly questionable. They descended from the early amniotes that preceded them and radiated into a number of different forms and niches. They bore a number of unique features. Most notably, each possessed a pair of elongated upper canine teeth, likely used in predation. Unfortunately, much of the knowledge base on them is contained in rather old and outdated papers, which makes tracking down easily digestible information on them quite difficult, so that is what has been attempted here. There has been a concerted effort to update and expand the body of research on Gorgonopsids in the past few years, but much work remains to be done. What follows is a brief summary of each of the known genera, their distinguishing characteristics, and some of the potential behavioral and ecological implications of their biology.
