Inostrancevia

Inostrancevia is an extinct genus of large carnivorous therapsids which lived during the Late Permian in what is now European Russia and Southern Africa. The first-known fossils of this gorgonopsian were discovered in the context of a long series of excavations carried out from 1899 to 1914 in the Northern Dvina, Russia. Among these are two near-complete skeletons embodying the first described specimens of this genus, being also the first gorgonopsian identified in Russia. Several other fossil materials were discovered there, and the various finds led to confusion as to the exact number of valid species, before only two of them were formally recognized, namely I. alexandri and I. latifrons. A third species, I. uralensis, was erected in 1974, but the fossil remains of this taxon are very thin and could come from another genus. More recent research carried out in Southern Africa has discovered specimens identified as belonging to this genus, being classified within the species I. africana. The genus name honors Alexander Inostrantsev, professor of Vladimir P. Amalitsky, the paleontologist who described the taxon.

Inostrancevia

Uncredited · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
InostranceviidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Gorgonopsia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At most 11 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 264.28 Mya and 254.14 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Permian — about 12 of 12 occurrencesPermian264–264 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences264–264 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences264–263 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences263–263 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences263–263 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences263–262 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences262–262 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences262–261 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences261–261 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences261–261 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences261–260 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences260–260 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences260–260 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences260–259 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences259–259 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences259–258 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences258–258 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences258–258 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences258–257 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences257–257 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences257–257 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences257–256 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences256–256 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences256–255 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences255–255 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences255–255 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences255–254 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences254–254 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences264.8 Mya253.6 Mya

12 occurrences of Inostrancevia on record, most of them in the Permian. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

12 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

3 formations

Salarevo — 61.19°N, 46.63°EKutuluk — 51.34°N, 55.76°EUsili — 10.38°S, 35.08°E

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The named rock units Inostrancevia has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 5 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Inostrancevia and its relatives

Permian

Where Inostrancevia and its relatives were recorded in the Permian.

Found in the same rock

34 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 7 sites for Inostrancevia, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

5 references

Each of the 12 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content3

Picture of Inostrancevia

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Photography scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Inostrancevia africana · NMQR:4000

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itInostranceviidae through timeFormations of the PermianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Amalitski 1922