Gorgonops

Gorgonops (from 'Gorgon' and 'eye, face', literally 'Gorgon eye' or 'Gorgon face') is an extinct genus of gorgonopsian therapsid, of which it is the type genus. Gorgonops lived during the Late Permian (Wuchiapingian), about 260–254 million years ago in what is now South Africa.

==History of discovery== The holotype of the type species, Gorgonops torvus, was one of the first therapsids discovered. It was described by Richard Owen, who also coined the name "Dinosauria" on the basis of the first known dinosaur fossils. G. torvus was also used as the type for the family Gorgonopsidae, which was described by Richard Lydekker in 1890. Five years later, in 1895, Harry Govier Seeley used this genus to establish the larger clade of Gorgonopsia. In later years, a large number of further species and genera were designated, though many of these were later determined to be synonyms.