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Inostrancevia latifrons NPC

nostrancevia is an extinct genus of large carnivorous therapsids which lived during the Late Permian in what is now European Russia and Southern Africa. The first-known fossils of this gorgonopsian were discovered in the context of a long series of excavations carried out from 1899 to 1914 in the Northern Dvina, Russia. Among these are two near-complete skeletons embodying the first described specimens of this genus, being also the first gorgonopsian identified in Russia. Several other fossil materials were discovered there, and the various finds led to confusion as to the exact number of valid species, before only two of them were formally recognized, namely I. alexandri and I . latifrons. A third species, I. uralensis, was erected in 1974, but the fossil remains of this taxon are very thin and could come from another genus. More recent research carried out in South Africa and Tanzania has discovered specimens identified as belonging to this genus, with the South African specimens being classified within the species I. africana. The whole genus is named in honor of Alexander Inostrantsev, professor of Vladimir P. Amalitsky, the paleontologist who described the taxon.