Inostrancevia
Inostrancevia | ||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Inostrancevia hunting a Scutosaurus - young animal (live reconstruction ) |
||||||||||||
Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
Upper Perm | ||||||||||||
260 to 251 million years | ||||||||||||
Locations | ||||||||||||
Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
Scientific name | ||||||||||||
Inostrancevia | ||||||||||||
Amalitsky , 1922 |
Inostrancevia was up to 4.3 meters long and nearly two meters high Gorgonopside , a group of Therapsid (formerly known as "mammal-like reptiles") that the in Permian lived and the mass extinction at the Permian-Triassic extinction event fell victim. Perhaps it was hairy and it had the saber teeth characteristic of all Gorgonopsids as well as certain scent glands. His head was very massive in relation to the body and suggests a larger brain volume than that of the reptiles of his time.
Way of life
Inostrancevia lived in the Upper Permian , the time when the supercontinent Pangea was formed. In that age it was very dry and the deserts had spread widely, even reaching as far as Russia.
At the end of this age, Inostrancevia was left as one of the last genera of the Gorgonopsia . In contrast to most of its relatives, like the Lycaenops , which were already extinct at the time , it hunted mostly alone, probably due to its size. He probably hunted pareiasaurs , such as the Scutosaurus or the Lystrosaurus , which belonged to the Dicynodontia . He probably ate carrion as well and was a good runner.
species
- Inostrancevia alexandri Amalitski, 1922, type species
- Inostrancevia latifrons Pravoslavlev, 1927
- Inostrancevia uralensis Tatarinov, 1974
- Inostrancevia vladimiri Pravoslavlev, 1927
Trivia
In the British television series Primeval - Return of the Primeval Monsters , an Inostrancevia appears several times .
literature
- Michael J. Benton, Mikhail A. Shishkin, David M. Unwin, and Evgenii N. Kurochkin: The Age of Dinosaurs in Russia and Mongolia. Cambridge University Press, ISBN 052154582X googlebooks
Web links
- Inostrancevia in Gondwanastudios.com