Inostrancevia

Inostrancevia in the hunt for a Scutosaurus hatchling (live reconstruction)

• Russia

Inostrancevia was up to 4.3 meters long and almost two meters high Gorgonopside, a group of therapsids ( formerly known as " mammal -like reptiles ") that lived in the Late Permian and the mass extinction was at the Permian-Triassic boundary to the victims. Maybe he was hairy and he possessed the characteristic of all gorgonopsians saber teeth and certain scent glands. His head was very bulky in proportion to the body and allows for a larger brain volume close as in reptiles of its time.

Way of life

Inostrancevia lived in the Upper Permian, the time of the supercontinent Pangaea had formed. In this age it was very dry and the desert had become widespread, even to Russia they were penetrated.

At the end of this age Inostrancevia was left as one of the last genres of Gorgonopsia. In contrast to most of his time to the already extinct relatives, such as the Lycaenops, he hunted, probably because of its size, mostly alone. He probably made ​​by Pareiasauriern as the Scutosaurus or the Lystrosaurus, who belonged to the Dicynodontia. Presumably he fed with carrion and was a good runner.

Species

• Inostrancevia Alexandrian Amalitsky, 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 prehistoric monsters repeatedly occurs a Inostrancevia.