Gorgonopsia

Gorgonopsia is an extinct clade of sabre-toothed therapsids from the Middle to the Upper Permian, roughly between 270 and 252 million years ago. They are characterised by a long and narrow skull, as well as elongated upper and sometimes lower canine teeth and incisors which were likely used as slashing and stabbing weapons. Postcanine teeth are generally reduced or absent. For hunting large prey, they possibly used a bite-and-retreat tactic, ambushing and taking a debilitating bite out of the target, and following it at a safe distance before its injuries exhausted it, whereupon the gorgonopsian would grapple the animal and deliver a killing bite. They would have had an exorbitant gape, possibly in excess of 90°, without having to unhinge the jaw.

Gorgonopsia

Uncredited · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
TherapsidaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 12 million years on record.

The record covers at least 266.9 Mya to 254.14 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 283.3 Mya to 251.902 Mya.

Permian — about 290 of 290 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 0 of 290 occurrences284–283 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences283–282 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences282–281 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences281–280 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences280–278 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences278–277 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences277–276 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences276–275 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences275–274 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences274–273 Mya — about 2 occurrences273–272 Mya — about 2 occurrences272–271 Mya — about 2 occurrences271–270 Mya — about 2 occurrences270–269 Mya — about 2 occurrences269–268 Mya — about 2 occurrences268–267 Mya — about 3 occurrences267–265 Mya — about 6 occurrences265–264 Mya — about 6 occurrences264–263 Mya — about 10 occurrences263–262 Mya — about 10 occurrences262–261 Mya — about 10 occurrences261–260 Mya — about 10 occurrences260–259 Mya — about 35 occurrences259–258 Mya — about 38 occurrences258–257 Mya — about 38 occurrences257–256 Mya — about 36 occurrences256–255 Mya — about 36 occurrences255–253 Mya — about 21 occurrences253–252 Mya — about 11 occurrences252–251 Mya — about 5 occurrences266.9 Mya254.14 Mya283.9 Mya251.3 Mya

290 occurrences of Gorgonopsia on record, most of them in the Permian. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

290 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

20 formations

Balfour — 32.15°S, 23.89°EBalfour — 31.96°S, 24.57°EBalfour — 31.91°S, 23.89°EBalfour — 31.87°S, 24.55°EBalfour — 31.95°S, 23.77°EBalfour — 32.04°S, 24.22°EBalfour — 32.16°S, 24.55°EBalfour — 32.05°S, 24.29°EBalfour — 31.86°S, 24.44°EBalfour — 31.76°S, 24.17°EBalfour — 32.06°S, 24.19°EUsili — 10.18°S, 35.15°EUsili — 10.23°S, 35.05°EUsili — 10.55°S, 34.95°EUsili — 10.30°S, 35.07°EUsili — 10.20°S, 35.38°EUsili — 10.38°S, 35.08°ETeekloof — 32.21°S, 21.63°ETeekloof — 32.15°S, 22.01°ETeekloof — 31.62°S, 23.20°ETeekloof — 31.91°S, 23.89°ETeekloof — 32.31°S, 22.08°ETeekloof — 32.08°S, 22.11°ETeekloof — 32.39°S, 22.55°ETeekloof — 32.15°S, 22.73°ETeekloof — 31.50°S, 22.39°EAbrahamskraal — 32.37°S, 22.00°EAbrahamskraal — 32.42°S, 22.37°EAbrahamskraal — 32.91°S, 22.03°EAbrahamskraal — 32.49°S, 22.17°EAbrahamskraal — 32.35°S, 22.58°EAbrahamskraal — 32.33°S, 21.80°EAbrahamskraal — 31.90°S, 21.48°EAbrahamskraal — 33.24°S, 22.08°EMadumabisa Mudstone — 16.52°S, 27.95°EMadumabisa Mudstone — 10.57°S, 32.97°EMadumabisa Mudstone — 10.77°S, 33.17°EMadumabisa Mudstone — 10.70°S, 33.21°EMadumabisa Mudstone — 16.48°S, 28.08°EMadumabisa Mudstone — 12.18°S, 32.11°EChiweta Beds — 10.70°S, 34.17°ESalarevo — 61.19°N, 46.63°EMiddleton/Balfour — 32.25°S, 24.53°ESan Angelo — 33.66°N, 99.94°WSan Angelo — 34.10°N, 99.73°WMoradi — 18.51°N, 7.53°EMoradi — 18.78°N, 7.20°EMoradi — 18.52°N, 7.55°EUrpalov — 58.15°N, 48.35°EUrpalov — 58.28°N, 48.32°EBelebei — 54.11°N, 54.13°EBelebei — 56.38°N, 50.92°EBelebei — 52.36°N, 55.88°EPoldarsa — 60.53°N, 44.91°EPoldarsa — 60.61°N, 45.62°EKundaram — 19.25°N, 79.25°EMalokinelskaya — 51.47°N, 55.14°EIlyinskoe — 55.02°N, 48.83°EShangshihezi — 34.94°N, 112.40°EKutuluk — 51.34°N, 55.76°EBolshekinelskaya — 53.65°N, 52.56°EAmanakskaya — 52.97°N, 53.81°E

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The named rock units Gorgonopsia has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 148 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Gorgonopsia and its relatives

Permian

Where Gorgonopsia and its relatives were recorded in the Permian.

Found in the same rock

432 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 64 sites for Gorgonopsia, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

55 references

Each of the 290 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 42 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Gorgonopsia

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Photography scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Gorgonopsia indet. · bp:1:1258

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itTherapsida through timeFormations of the PermianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Seeley 1894)