Monstrous’ new sabre-toothed fossils from Russia reveal early evolution of mammals

Two new species of predatory creatures with giant sabre teeth have been unearthed in Russia. The prehistoric animals belong to a group known as therapsids or “protomammals” that ruled the planet long before the first dinosaurs over 250 million years ago.
These creatures would ultimately give rise to modern mammals, but they were largely wiped out by a massive extinction event at the end of the Permian era that made way for the age of the dinosaurs.

As the new specimens are some of the only ones to be found outside Africa, they have been welcomed as an important piece in the puzzle of the mammal family tree. Inspired by their “monstrous” appearances, both species were named after legendary creatures from Russian folklore. Gorynychus is named after Zmey Gorynych, a three-headed dragon, and Nochnitsa shares the name of a malevolent nocturnal spirit, also known as the “night hag”.

The wolf-sized Gorynychus belonged to a subgroup of protomammals called therocephalians – meaning “beast heads” – while the smaller Nochnitsa was a gorgonopsian, a group taking their name from a monster from Greek mythology. The fossils were discovered by expeditions from the Vyatka Paleontological Museum to a site near the near the town of Kotelnich in western Russia.