Euchambersia was a therocephalian therapsid that lived during the Late Permian epoch, approximately 250 million years ago, in what is now South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

.

Euchambersia was a unique therocephalian. It apparently had venom glands connected to its canine teeth. Like snakes, the teeth of Euchambersia were adapted to inject venom to kill its prey. A recess behind each canine tooth housed the venom gland, while grooves down the outer sides of the canine teeth delivered the venom into the puncture wound, together with powerful jaws this made it a very efficient predator to hunt the herbivorious dicynodont

Dicynodont

Dicynodontia is a taxon of anomodont therapsids or mammal-like reptiles. Dicynodonts were small to large herbivorous animals with two tusks, hence their name, which means 'two dog tooth'...

s and pareiasaur

Pareiasaur

The Pareiasaurs - Family Pareiasauridae - are a clade of medium-sized to large herbivorous anapsid reptiles that flourished during the Permian period....

s it encountered.

In popular culture

Euchambersia made an appearance in Walking with Monsters

Walking with Monsters

Walking with Monsters is a three-part British documentary film series about life in the Paleozoic, bringing to life extinct arthropods, fish, amphibians, synapsids, and reptiles...

. Here, identified as a therocephalian, it was seen hunting Lystrosaurus

Lystrosaurus

Lystrosaurus was a genus of Late Permian and Early Triassic Period dicynodont therapsids, which lived around 250 million years ago in what is now Antarctica, India, and South Africa...

in packs while the herd passed through a canyon

Canyon

A canyon or gorge is a deep ravine between cliffs often carved from the landscape by a river. Rivers have a natural tendency to reach a baseline elevation, which is the same elevation as the body of water it will eventually drain into. This forms a canyon. Most canyons were formed by a process of...

. It is depicted as being nocturnal and having venom

Venom

Venom is the general term referring to any variety of toxins used by certain types of animals that inject it into their victims by the means of a bite or a sting...

 more potent than that of a black mamba

Black mamba

The black mamba , also called the common black mamba or black-mouthed mamba, is the longest venomous snake in Africa, averaging around in length, and sometimes growing to lengths of...

. The model used for the Euchambersia was the same model that was used for the Thrinaxodon

Thrinaxodon

Thrinaxodon was a cynodont, an ermine-sized therapsid. Pits on the skull suggest that Thrinaxodon may have had whiskers, and by extension a protective covering of fur. There are suggestions that it was warm-blooded...

that appeared in the first episode of Walking with Dinosaurs

Walking with Dinosaurs

Walking with Dinosaurs is a six-part documentary television miniseries that was produced by BBC, narrated by Kenneth Branagh, and first aired in the United Kingdom, in 1999. The series was subsequently aired in North America on the Discovery Channel in 2000, with Branagh's voice replaced with that...

. Actually, the therocephalian was never identified, so it could be another venomous therocephalian species. However, this is considered to be somewhat unlikely, since no other venomous therocephalian species have been discovered to date.