OBJECT DOSSIER · SMITHSONIAN OPEN ACCESS

Gorgonopsian synapsid — Cyonosaurus longiceps

SAGE Museum Deep Time scientific dossier

Artist / Creator

Smokeybjb

Date / Period

Late Permian · Late Permian, Cistecephalus assemblage-zone context for the Smithsonian specimen.

Object Type

skull

Medium

unknown_needs_review

About This Object

Geologic period: Late Permian

Age: Late Permian, Cistecephalus assemblage-zone context for the Smithsonian specimen.

Feeding: Carnivorous.

Locomotion: Terrestrial quadruped.

Body plan: Terrestrial predatory therapsid with an elongated skull and specialized carnivorous dentition.

Evidence: Cranial anatomy is directly preserved. Feeding behavior is inferred from gorgonopsian skull and dental anatomy.

Why it matters: Gorgonopsians show that formidable land predators already existed within the synapsid lineage tens of millions of years before large predatory dinosaurs.

Plain Language Identity: A Late Permian gorgonopsian, part of a lineage of predatory therapsid synapsids.

What You Are Looking At: A fossil cranium identified as Cyonosaurus longiceps.

Defense Or Attack: The skull and predatory dentition formed the main feeding and attack apparatus.

Ecosystem: Late Permian Karoo Basin ecosystem of South Africa.

Preservation: Fossil skull / cranium.

Formation: Teekloof Formation.

Find Location: South Africa.

Research History: Cyonosaurus taxonomy remains under study. Recent research notes that some named species may be difficult to separate because size and skull proportions can change during growth.

Open Questions: Retain the Smithsonian identification but do not imply that every historical Cyonosaurus species distinction is permanently settled.

Source Urls: https://naturalhistory.si.edu/visit/virtual-tour/current-exhibits/deep-time-virtual-tour-fossil-list; https://www.si.edu/object/nmnhpaleobiology_3450119; https://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/server/api/core/bitstreams/5d867beb-b755-43f0-8fef-0b04e0457524/content

Enrichment Method: SAGE curated research pass; title and scientific name matched; current research distinctions retained; evidence separated from inference

Scientific name: Cyonosaurus longiceps

Evidence / representation: comparative_taxon_visual

Why It Is In This SAGE Exhibit

comparative_taxon_visual

The Permian World: Strange Bodies and the Great Dying.

Provenance

Smithsonian Deep Time source scene: Life Changes in the Permian

Visual source institution: Wikimedia Commons

Exhibition History

Included in the SAGE Museum Dinosaurs & Deep Time staging exhibit.

Collection & Credit

Media license: CC BY-SA 3.0

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0

Subjects & Themes

Cyonosaurus longiceps Late Permian skull Life Changes in the Permian The Permian World

ORIGINAL COLLECTION SOURCE

This object page stays inside SAGE Museum. The Smithsonian link below is provided only as the original scholarly collection record. It opens separately.

VIEW ORIGINAL SMITHSONIAN RECORD ↗