| Inostrancevia Temporal range: Wuchiapingian | |
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| A life restoration of Inostrancevia alexandri | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| clade: | Synapsida |
| Order: | Therapsida |
| Family: | †Gorgonopsidae |
| Subfamily: | †Inostranceviinae |
| Genus: | †Inostrancevia Amalitsky, 1922 |
| Type species | |
| †Inostrancevia alexandri Amalitsky, 1922 | |
| Referred species | |
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| Synonyms | |
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Inostrancevia ( named after the Russian geologist Aleksandr Inostrantsev) is the largest of the gorgonopsid species as it was, likely, the top of the food chain in western Russia and Tanzania during Wuchiapingian age, the earliest age of the Lopingian epoch of the Permian period. It preyed on a large herbivores like the pareiasaur Scutosaurus. The species name I. alexandri is known from an almost complete skeleton.
Description[]
Like all other gorgonopsids, Inostrancevia was a quadrupedal animal with an upright gait. It was up to 3-3.5 metres or 10-11.7 feet long, the size of a large grizzly bear. It is also known from its two huge sabre teeth, up to 12 cm long and are one of the perfect tools to kill prey. Its other teeth included 6 large incisors, and 10 smaller back teeth and the mandibles that contained 14 incisors, in which 8 of them are smaller than the others.
Inostrancevia predatory behavior depicted by artist: Alexandri
It was one of the largest carnivores of the Permian and would have filled the ecological niche that big cats fill today like tiger and jaguars. It would have also been different from those cats because it would live in the type of environment that lions live in (only far more harsh) but it would have acted like a massive tiger in that it would have hunted alone. Inostrancevia would have been an extremely fast runner over long distances.
It would have been very territorial in that other predators or Inostrancevia were never welcome similar to today's large carnivores. Its hunting method would have been to lie in wait for an unsuspecting prey item then it would have bound after the creature using its speed to run down the animal then bite the neck until it dies of blood loss or suffocated or both. Then it would have eaten as much as it could. Due to its extremely harsh and arid environment, it would have been a dull colour like grey or brown to blend in with the environment so it could sneak up on its prey.
Other Information[]
Inostrancevia is an extinct genus of carnivorous therapsids, containing the largest members of the family Gorgonopsidae, predators characterized by long, saber-tooth-like canines. The various species inhabited northern Russia during the Upper Tatarian or Vyatskian, a Russian regional stage equivalent to the Wuchiapingian stage of the Late Permian period, dating from approximately 260 to 254 million years ago. It is known from several skulls and two almost-complete skeletons.
The species in Inostrancevia were the largest gorgonopsids known; known individuals have total body lengths reaching up to 3.5 m and long, narrow skulls up to 60 cm long. Like several other gorgonopsids, Inostrancevia was characterized by strongly developed canine teeth, with those of the upper jaw up to 15 cm long, the root corresponding to half its length. Their bodies were slender, with rather short legs. Inostrancevia shared its habitat with Scutosaurus which it likely preyed upon. Their total body lengths reaching up to 3.5 meters and long, narrow skulls up to 60 cm long, weighted around 250 kilograms.
Species[]
- Inostrancevia alexandri
- Inostrancevia latifrons
- Inostrancevia uralensis
In the media[]
Walking with Monsters gorgonopsid
- The Siberian grogonopsid from "Clash of Titans", the last episode of Walking with Monsters, was likely inspired by Inostrancevia. However, Inostrancevia had different proportions a was slower that the animal from the program. The largest known specimens of Inostrancevia probably reached 3 or 3.5 m in length, while in the program, a fantastically large gorgonopsid with a length of 5 m appears. In The Complete Guide To Prehistoric Life, the gorgonopsid is revealed as Gorgonops, the much smaller animal from southern Africa, not Siberia. Actually, no gorgonopsids and other large animals of the late Permian period have been found in Siberia. Inostrancevia and Scutosaurus, an animal from "Clash of Titans", have been discovered in Arkhangelsk Oblast, the north region of western Russia.
- It makes another appearance the first episode of Dinosaur Revolution as it is shown to be one of the animals to die out from the horrific Permian extinction.
Dinosaur Revolution Inostrancevia
- The gorgonopsid from the BBC British TV show Primeval is likely also inspired by Inostrancevia since it lives in the same time and location as Scutosaurus. However, it have even more notable differences from real Inostrancevia. In addition to incorrect proportions and excagerrated size, the animal from the show has scales on the head and back as well as an additional pair of fangs, features that are not observed in any gorgonopsians. In the first episode, the gorgonopsid is seen chasing Helen Cutter. It later attacks a school and ends up being hit by a car. In the sixth eposide, the gorgonopsid appears as hallucination of Claudia Brown. Later, the real animal fights and kills a future predator in Permian period.
- Inostrancevia has also appeared in the Safari Ltd Wild Safari toyline.
- Inostrancevia appeared in the video game called Dino Crisis 2.
- Inostrancevia appears in the video game Jurassic world alive.
- Inostrancevia has also appeared in the Netflix Original Documentary Series, Life on Our Planet, identified as a "gorgonopsid".
Gallery[]
References[]
- https://dinosaurrevolution.fandom.com/wiki/Inostrancevia
- https://eol.org/pages/13641162
- https://prehistoric-fauna.com/Inostrancevia
- https://museumsvictoria.com.au/media/3434/inostrancevia.pdf
- https://www.gbif.org/species/162902105
- https://www.parcodellapreistoria.it/preistoria_inostrancevia
- http://www.fossilworks.org/cgi-bin/bridge.pl?a=taxonInfo&taxon_no=341039]]