Inostrancevia
Inostrancevia alexandri
As one of the largest gorgonopsians, Inostrancevia shows the diversity of Permian synapsid predators.
Image: Unknown · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
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Characteristics
- Scientific name
- Inostrancevia alexandri
- Period
- Late Permian
- Lived
- 260–252 Ma (260 million years ago)
- Diet
- Carnivore
- Habitat
- Plains, Forest
- Length (estimate)
- 3.5 m
- Mass (estimate)
- 300 kg
Description
Inostrancevia was a large gorgonopsian with an elongated skull, powerful limbs and notably long upper canines. It was a terrestrial predator that probably attacked large herbivores. Its teeth and jaws indicate a deep slicing bite, but hunting behaviour is inferred from anatomy rather than directly observed. It lived shortly before the Permian–Triassic mass extinction.
Habitat
Seasonally dry plains and woodlands in northern Pangaea.
Fossil sites
Sokolki, Arkhangelsk Oblast
Sokolki deposits
Cultural profile: Russia →
Sources: Inostrancevia