''Gorynychus'' is a genus of

therocephalia Therocephalia is an extinct suborder of eutheriodont therapsids (mammals and their close relatives) from the Permian and Triassic. The therocephalians ("beast-heads") are named after their large skulls, which, along with the structure of their ...

n from the mid-Permian from

Kotelnich Kotelnich (russian: Коте́льнич; chm, Кäкшäр) is a river port town in Kirov Oblast, Russia, located on the right bank of the Vyatka River near its confluence with the Moloma, along the route of the Trans-Siberian Railway, south ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...

. The genus contains two species, ''G. masyutinae'' and ''G. sundyrensis''. It was named after the three-headed dragon

Zmey Gorynych A Slavic dragon is any dragon in Slavic mythology, including the Russian '' zmei'' (or ''zmey''; ), Ukrainian ''zmiy'' (), and its counterparts in other Slavic cultures: the Bulgarian ''zmey'' (), the Slovak ''drak'' and ''šarkan'', Czech ' ...

(Змей Горыныч) from Russian mythology.

Description

''G. masyutinae'', only known from its

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of seve ...

, was wolf-sized and appears to have represented the largest predator in the Kotelnich fauna. Like many theriodonts, it had strongly developed and prominent

canine teeth In mammalian oral anatomy, the canine teeth, also called cuspids, dog teeth, or (in the context of the upper jaw) fangs, eye teeth, vampire teeth, or vampire fangs, are the relatively long, pointed teeth. They can appear more flattened however ...

Paleoecology

The discovery of such a large therocephalian as the apex predator of its environment coupled with the discovery of a smaller gorgonopsid, the smaller and nocturnal ''

Nochnitsa ''Nochnitsa'' (rus.: ночница, literally – nightling) is a genus of gorgonopsian therapsid from the Kotelnich red beds of Permian Russia. It contains one species, ''Nochnitsa geminidens''. It the most basal known gorgonopsian and among th ...

'', in the same formation indicates that a faunal turnover was occurring at the time, with gorgonopsians taking over the therocephalians' role as the dominant predators in their environment.

References

Fossil taxa described in 2018 Permian animals Therocephalia genera {{paleo-therapsid-stub