Back in the Paleozoic, some 540 million years ago, life in the seas was teaming with life but life on life amounted to a bit of moss and some low fungi.
Cut to 240 million years later, the vertebrate animals evolved and a huge spectrum of variety was living on land.
Gorgons or Gorgonopsia were sabre-toothed therapsids who roamed our ancient Earth from the Middle to Upper Permian — 265 to 252 million years ago — with their long claws, lizard eyes and massive canines.
I learned about the Karoo, and indeed the Gorgons, by a book of the same name by the deeply awesome Peter Ward. His introduction to what life and fieldwork are like in the arid, inhospitable ancestral home of the Gorgons in South Africa made me laugh out loud. It is a highly enjoyable read.
The Great Karoo formed in a vast inland basin 320 million years ago, at a time when the part of Gondwana which would eventually become Africa lay over the South Pole. The Karoo records a wonderful time in our evolutionary history when the world was inhabited by interesting amphibians and mammal-like reptiles — including the apex predators of the day, the Gorgons.
The link below will take you to the Fossil Huntress Podcast where you can travel back in time to visit the Great Karoo with me.
If you fancy a read, check out more geeky goodness over on the ARCHEA blog at https://fossilhuntress.blogspot.com/
If you like podcasts, check out the Fossil Huntress — Palaeo Sommelier Podcast at https://anchor.fm/fossil-huntress
Fossil Huntress Geeky Goodness on YouTube:
Photo: National Geographic