GORGONOPS
Gorgonops was a therapsid reptile living around 250 million years ago, towards the end of the Permian period. About the size of rhino at around 2 metres but with a leaner, sleeker body, Gorgonops was agile and the apex predator of its time. Their acute eyesight and powerful sense of smell, not to mention fangs that could reach up to 15cm long meant Gorgonops would’ve been capable to bring down prey larger than itself. Its teeth were long and curved, this predatory design reappeared through the ages, also being seen in the sabre tooth cats of the Cenozoic era.
The late Permian is synonymous for extinction, where many animals perished in a harsh world with little rainfall, endless deserts and scorching temperature, but theraspids including Gorgonops, thrived. It had long, upright legs which allowed them to run and walk with ease in the heat, and it probably hunted in the early morning and rested in the afternoon heat, like many animals today.
Therapsids mat have looked like a distant relative dinosaur, but they were more closely related to mammals. They were an important group of animals because although they were reptiles as they were cold blooded, they also had mammalian traits such as legs tucked under the body and teeth that were capable of tearing into a variety of foods. The first true mammals would evolve from therapsids.
Gorgonopsid fossils have been found globally, yet Gorgonops is known only from specimens found in South Africa. Varieties of gorgonopsid look similar but some could be the size of a dog, where others grew much larger. Gogonops was one of the first species of therapsid to be identified by Richard Owen, the man responsible for coining the term “dinosauria”.
Despite their dominance and ability to survive in a dying world, Gorgonops would not make it through the Permian extinction, which claimed the prey and then the hunters, including Gorgonops.