DINOGORGON: TERROR OF THE LATE PERMIAN

Dinogorgon Rubidgei / Photo: Jonathan Blair / Corbis

A quarter of a billion years ago, long before dinosaurs or mammals evolved, this three-metre (10-foot) gorgonopsid, Dinogorgon, terrorized the floodplains of what is now South Africa and Tanzania during the Late Permian.

For many years, we've believed that these mighty hunters reigned and died out in less than a million years. Dinogorgon is meant to have vanished during one of the greatest mass extinction events on the planet, the Permian Extinction. We've recorded five mass extinction events in our humble 4.6 billion year history. The event from the Permian wiped our about nine of every ten plant and animal species on the planet. New fossil evidence suggests that there were actually two mass extinctions during this time, with a sixth event happening around 260 million years ago.