New Majorca gorgonopsian: the oldest yet

“Fossil predator is the oldest known animal with ‘saber teeth’”
That superlative headline came from publicity in EurekaAlert.org, “Until now, the oldest known gorgonopsians lived roughly 265 million years ago. However, the new fossil is from 270-280 million years ago.”

So at least 5 million years older.
The SuppData figure for this paper indicates a range back to 290 mya.
So maybe 25 million years older.

The title of the paper
is more circumspect: “Early–middle Permian Mediterranean gorgonopsian suggests an equatorial origin of therapsids.”

The SuppData figure for this paper indicates the Middle Permian began 274 mya.
So maybe 9 million years older.

Editing and chronology are not exact sciences.

From the abstract
“Here we describe a definitive therapsid from the lower–?middle Permian palaeotropics, a partial skeleton of a gorgonopsian from the island of Mallorca, western Mediterranean. This specimen represents, to our knowledge, the oldest gorgonopsian record worldwide, and possibly the oldest known therapsid.”

That may be true. I know of no older ones, except maybe Biseridens from the Middle Permian, 270 mya, which was tested in the authors’ cladogram.

The published site map
indicates a scattering of the few bones that were recovered to create the reconstruction. Elements of the skull are shown in figure 1. The specimen DA21/17-01-01 remains unnamed.

Figure 1. The Majorca early gorgonopsian compared for the first time to Eotitanosuchus, the basal gorgonopsian. ” data-image-caption=”

Figure 1. The Majorca early gorgonopsian compared for the first time to Eotitanosuchus, the basal gorgonopsian.

” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/eotitanosuchus.majorca588.gif?w=256″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/eotitanosuchus.majorca588.gif?w=584″ class=”size-full wp-image-90509″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/eotitanosuchus.majorca588.gif” alt=”Figure 1. The Majorca early gorgonopsian compared for the first time to Eotitanosuchus, the basal gorgonopsian. ” width=”584″ height=”684″ srcset=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/eotitanosuchus.majorca588.gif?w=584&h=684 584w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/eotitanosuchus.majorca588.gif?w=128&h=150 128w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/eotitanosuchus.majorca588.gif?w=256&h=300 256w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/eotitanosuchus.majorca588.gif 588w” sizes=”(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px” />

Figure 1. The Majorca early gorgonopsian compared for the first time to Eotitanosuchus, the basal gorgonopsian. It’s a close match.

Not older, but more primitive sabertooth therapsids are known.
Those are all known from higher strata, like the Capitanian (Late Middle Permian, 260 million years ago).

An exception omitted
from the authors’ cladogram is Eotitanosuchus (Fig 1), known only from a complete skull lacking a mandible from the Wordian, 267 mya. In the Therapsid Skull Tree (TST, 77 taxa) Eotitanosuchus nests basal to the gorgonopsians. Putting the Majorca specimen together to scale with Eotitanosuchus (Fig 1) reveals similarities in size and what little morphology can be compared. Other gorgonopsians and other therapsids are shown in figure 2.

Figure 2. Gorgonopsids, therocephalians and cynodonts to scale. ” data-image-caption=”

Figure 2. Gorgonopsids, therocephalians and cynodonts to scale.

” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/eotitanosuchus_size_compared588.jpg?w=106″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/eotitanosuchus_size_compared588.jpg?w=363″ class=”size-full wp-image-36495″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/eotitanosuchus_size_compared588.jpg” alt=”Figure 2. Gorgonopsids, therocephalians and cynodonts to scale.” width=”584″ height=”1648″ srcset=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/eotitanosuchus_size_compared588.jpg?w=584&h=1648 584w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/eotitanosuchus_size_compared588.jpg?w=53&h=150 53w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/eotitanosuchus_size_compared588.jpg?w=106&h=300 106w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/eotitanosuchus_size_compared588.jpg 588w” sizes=”(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px” />

Figure 2. Gorgonopsids, therocephalians and cynodonts to scale.

At present
there is a substantial temporal gap separating therapsids from their ancestors among the pelycosaurs. Any new sites and taxa from those sites that bridge this gap are welcome.

References
Matamales-Andreu et al (6 co-authors) 2024. Early–middle Permian Mediterranean gorgonopsian suggests an equatorial origin of therapsids. Nature Communications. 15, 10346 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-54425-5

wiki/Eotitanosuchus

Publicity
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1068286
“In the journal Nature Communications, scientists announce the discovery of a fossil therapsid that’s the oldest of its kind, and maybe the oldest therapsid ever discovered: a vaguely dog-like saber-toothed predator.”