In Depth
Phorcys is a genus of gorgonopsid therapsid that lived in South Africa during the Permian. When named, Phorcys was described from a partial skull that revealed much of the posterior section but none of the anterior. Nonetheless these skulsl could still be compared to better preserved specimens of relative gorgonopsid genera. This led to a reconstructed estimate that the skull of Phorcys, when complete, may have approached somewhere up to thirty centimetres in length. Inferred by skull size alone, this would make Phorcys one of the biggest and most powerful predators of its era.
Further reading
- The earliest gorgonopsians from the Karoo Basin of South Africa. - Journal of African Earth Sciences - C. F. Kammerer & B. S. Rubidge - 2022.
