Dinogorgon
Encyclopedia
Permian
The PermianThe term "Permian" was introduced into geology in 1841 by Sir Sir R. I. Murchison, president of the Geological Society of London, who identified typical strata in extensive Russian explorations undertaken with Edouard de Verneuil; Murchison asserted in 1841 that he named his "Permian...
period of South Africa. Dinogorgon was a predator that ate reptile
Reptile
Reptiles are members of a class of air-breathing, ectothermic vertebrates which are characterized by laying shelled eggs , and having skin covered in scales and/or scutes. They are tetrapods, either having four limbs or being descended from four-limbed ancestors...
s and smaller therapsids. Its closest relatives included Lycaenops
Lycaenops
Lycaenops is a genus of carnivorous therapsid . It measured about 1 meter long and lived during the late mid-Permian to the early Late Permian in what is now South Africa....
, and possibly Gorgonops
Gorgonops
Gorgonops is an extinct genus of therapsid which lived about 255-250 million years ago, during the latest part of the Permian Period. It was a typical representative of the suborder Gorgonopsia, the dominant predators of their day, which in the largest forms grew to over four metres long...
. Like all other gorgonopsids, Dinogorgon perished prior to, or during the Permian-Triassic Extinction Event
Permian-Triassic extinction event
The Permian–Triassic extinction event, informally known as the Great Dying, was an extinction event that occurred 252.28 Ma ago, forming the boundary between the Permian and Triassic geologic periods, as well as the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras...
.