Sauroctonus parringtoni

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Sauroctonus parringtoni skeleton

Skeleton of Sauroctonus parringtoni (Staatliches Mus.Naturkunde,Karlsruhe,Germany)

Sauroctonus was a Late Permian gorgonopsian carnivore first described from the Northern Dvina region in Russia (Tatarinov 1974). During the Late Permian period, the gorgonopsians ("gorgon faces," from gorgon and -ops, "eye" or "face") were a highly successful group of predators, including a total of 25 genera and 41 species from South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Malawi, as well as from Russia (Broom 1930, Gebauer 2007).
The species Sauroctonus parringtoni was discovered in the Ruhuhu Valley of Tanzania, dating from the Wuchiapingian phase of the Late Permian (260-251 mya). The skull and skeleton of S. parringtoni are now in the Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde, in Karlsruhe, Germany.
Gebauer (2007) has made a detailed comparison between Sauroctonus and the Late Pleistocene saber-toothed cat Smilodon fatalis, which had similar body lengths of about 2 meters. In spite of the fact that they are separated by at least 230 million years, and that Sauroctonus still retained some reptilian features in its lower jaw, skull, and skeleton, while Smilodon was an advanced mammal, there are some intriguingly close functional parallels between these two extinct carnivores, both in teeth and jaw forms, and the musculature of jaw movements used in catching and eating prey. Sauroctonus in all probability occupied the same ecological niche as a top predator as did the saber-toothed cat Smilodon.


References:
Broom, R. 1930. On the structure of the mammal-like reptiles of the sub-order Gorgonopsia. Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc.
Gebauer, E.V.I. 2007 . Phylogeny and evolution of the Gorgonopsia with a special reference to the skull and skeleton of GPIT/RE/7113 ('Aelurognathus?' parringtoni). Ph.D. thesis, Tübingen: Eberhard-Karls Universität Tübingen.
Tatarinov, I. P. 1974. Theriodonts of the USSR. Tr. Paleont. Inst. Akad. Nauk SSSR, 143: 1-240.

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	Sauroctonus parringtoni skeleton Skeleton of Sauroctonus parringtoni (Staatliches Mus.Naturkunde,Karlsruhe,Germany)

	Sauroctonus was a Late Permian gorgonopsian carnivore first described from the Northern Dvina region in Russia (Tatarinov 1974). During the Late Permian period, the gorgonopsians ("gorgon faces," from gorgon and -ops, "eye" or "face") were a highly successful group of predators, including a total of 25 genera and 41 species from South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Malawi, as well as from Russia (Broom 1930, Gebauer 2007). The species Sauroctonus parringtoni was discovered in the Ruhuhu Valley of Tanzania, dating from the Wuchiapingian phase of the Late Permian (260-251 mya). The skull and skeleton of S. parringtoni are now in the Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde, in Karlsruhe, Germany. Gebauer (2007) has made a detailed comparison between Sauroctonus and the Late Pleistocene saber-toothed cat Smilodon fatalis, which had similar body lengths of about 2 meters. In spite of the fact that they are separated by at least 230 million years, and that Sauroctonus still retained some reptilian features in its lower jaw, skull, and skeleton, while Smilodon was an advanced mammal, there are some intriguingly close functional parallels between these two extinct carnivores, both in teeth and jaw forms, and the musculature of jaw movements used in catching and eating prey. Sauroctonus in all probability occupied the same ecological niche as a top predator as did the saber-toothed cat Smilodon. References: Broom, R. 1930. On the structure of the mammal-like reptiles of the sub-order Gorgonopsia. Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. Gebauer, E.V.I. 2007 . Phylogeny and evolution of the Gorgonopsia with a special reference to the skull and skeleton of GPIT/RE/7113 ('Aelurognathus?' parringtoni). Ph.D. thesis, Tübingen: Eberhard-Karls Universität Tübingen. Tatarinov, I. P. 1974. Theriodonts of the USSR. Tr. Paleont. Inst. Akad. Nauk SSSR, 143: 1-240.
	Athena Review Image Archive™ Main index of Athena Review Copyright © 1996-2020 Rust Family Foundation (All Rights Reserved).

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Sauroctonus parringtoni skeleton

Skeleton of Sauroctonus parringtoni (Staatliches Mus.Naturkunde,Karlsruhe,Germany)

The species Sauroctonus parringtoni was discovered in the Ruhuhu Valley of Tanzania, dating from the Wuchiapingian phase of the Late Permian (260-251 mya). The skull and skeleton of S. parringtoni are now in the Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde, in Karlsruhe, Germany.

References:

Broom, R. 1930. On the structure of the mammal-like reptiles of the sub-order Gorgonopsia. Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc.

Gebauer, E.V.I. 2007 . Phylogeny and evolution of the Gorgonopsia with a special reference to the skull and skeleton of GPIT/RE/7113 ('Aelurognathus?' parringtoni). Ph.D. thesis, Tübingen: Eberhard-Karls Universität Tübingen.

Tatarinov, I. P. 1974. Theriodonts of the USSR. Tr. Paleont. Inst. Akad. Nauk SSSR, 143: 1-240.

Athena Review Image Archive ^™