Gorgonops

Gorgonops is an extinct genus of saber-toothed gorgonopsian therapsids known from Late Permian deposits in what is now South Africa.

Gorgonopsia: Gorgonopsia is an extinct group of predatory therapsids characterized by elongated canine teeth and other carnivorous adaptations. Gorgonops is a member of this group, whose name derives from the genus.
Therapsid skull: A therapsid skull is the bony head structure of a member of Therapsida, often showing mammal-like features. Gorgonopsian skull proportions reveal a powerful bite and large jaw muscles.
Karoo Supergroup: The Karoo Supergroup is a thick sequence of sedimentary rocks in southern Africa spanning much of the late Paleozoic and Mesozoic. Its fossil-bearing strata preserve Gorgonops and many other Permian land vertebrates.
Gorgonopsian: A gorgonopsian is a member of an extinct group of Permian therapsids, generally carnivorous and often large-toothed. Gorgonops is a representative genus within this distinctive predator group.
Therapsida: Therapsida is a major group of synapsids that includes mammals and their extinct relatives. Gorgonops belonged to this broader lineage of mammal relatives.
Canine tooth: A canine tooth is a pointed tooth positioned between incisors and cheek teeth in many mammals and their relatives. Gorgonops’s enlarged upper canines were its most conspicuous weapon.
Beaufort Group: The Beaufort Group is a sedimentary succession in South Africa containing abundant Permian and Triassic vertebrate fossils. Beaufort rocks are central to documenting South African gorgonopsians.
Permian–Triassic extinction event: The Permian–Triassic extinction event was a global biodiversity crisis about 252 million years ago. Gorgonops lived shortly before the extinction that ended its world.
Synapsid: A synapsid is a vertebrate whose skull typically has one temporal opening behind each eye socket. This ancestry places Gorgonops on the lineage leading to mammals, not reptiles.
Temporal fenestra: A temporal fenestra is an opening in the skull behind the eye that accommodates jaw muscles. The synapsid opening provided space for the muscles powering Gorgonops’s jaws.

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