Gorynych existed: What did the beast-lizard look like, the remains of which were found in Russia

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The remains of an ancient animal, found in the Kirov region and Mari El, have been carefully studied by Russian and foreign scientists. And they christened this creature … "gornych". No, he did not have three heads and he did not spew flames. But this late Permian therocephalus also looked very impressive. It was about the size of a bear and had "double" fangs.

Why exactly "gornych"? Well, firstly, it was a really cruel predator, so the parallel with Slavic mythology is fully justified. And, secondly, gory in English means bloody, and onychus - translated from Greek means "claw" or "tooth". With these very teeth, the ancient predator easily cut the meat of its own kind, so “bloody fangs” is a very suitable definition for it.

Gorynychus, the Permian lizardman theriodon, lived in Eastern Europe more than 260 million years ago. In those days, there was a dry and hot climate with warm rivers and swamps. Lizardmen, which in appearance resembled both reptiles and mammals, felt great in such conditions.

Gorynychs appeared at a time when the ecosystem began to recover after the mass extinction of a group of therapsids - creatures that dominated in the middle of the Permian period. Gorynych was one of the largest therocephalic predators of that time.

Modern scientists have divided the genus "mountain men" into two types. The first is Gorynychus masyutinae, a wolf-sized creature with huge fangs. The second - Gorynychus sundyrensis (sundyr mountain) was named and described by Russian paleontologists only this year: his remains were found on the southern shore of the Cheboksary reservoir. This species is interesting in that on each side of the jaw it had two canines at once, and it also had four canine teeth instead of three. So this theriodont looked very extravagant.

- Apparently, when the canines were changed, a new tooth first grew in Gorynychus sundyrensis, and the old one remained in place for some time. Thus, on each side of his jaw, for some time, two canines were located at once, the scientists explain.

Excavations at the Sundyr site, where the remains of the gornych were found, began nine years ago. According to the latest data from paleontologists, all the remains of predatory lizards found here mainly belong to two very large therocephals, which were previously unknown to science. These are the ylognatus crudelis (Julognathus crudelis), named after the ancient Mari name of the Volga River (Yul), and the sundyr mountain gornych already mentioned above.

- The teeth of this creature presented us with another surprise. On their surface, the wear is clearly visible, which suggests that the mountaineers used them for something hard and, most likely, for gnawing other people's bones, scientists say. - This feeding behavior is very unusual: the dental apparatus of most of the Permian predators cut, rather than tore apart, prey. The predator seemed to cut out a piece of meat from his prey, but at the same time he could not tear off a small piece from it. Therefore, these creatures chose prey of the same size as themselves as an object of hunting - it was physiologically more difficult for them to devour small animals.

Interestingly, bones with traces of gnawing in Permian deposits are rare - Sundyr is the only place in Eastern Europe where they were found.

“The bursting-type dental apparatus allowed therocephalics to gnaw the bones of their victims and thereby provided them with a serious advantage over their counterparts,” the scientists explain.

By the way, in the same deposits, paleontologists found the remains of another interesting predator, and it was also named in the "mythical" style. A creature from the suborder of Gorgonops became known as Nochnitsa geminidens - from the Russian word for "night lady". This is how the ancient Slavs called the mythical creature, which, according to legends, attacked small children at night and caused them insomnia and bad, disturbing dreams. However, this ancient predator, in fact, was not so scary as the character who gave it its name.

The night moth of the Permian period was half the size of the gorynych (slightly larger than the ferret), and its canines, although they were quite noticeable, had a very small length - 1-2 centimeters.

Despite the different sizes, for paleontologists both the mountain and the bat have become very important finds. The discovery of these creatures indicates a “change of leaders” that took place in this segment of the Permian period, when therocephals became the dominant predators, taking this role away from the Gorgonops.

To see the remains of ancient living creatures, it is not at all necessary to go to the excavations. You can, for example, search ancient fossils in the Moscow metro.