Sauroctonus

Sauroctonus ("lizard killer") is an extinct genus of gorgonopsian therapsids who lived during the end of the Middle Permian in what is now European Russia. The first fossils, discovered in Tatarstan, were initially believed to belong to a new species of the South African genus Arctognathus (named A. progressus in 1938). The taxon was designated as such until 1940, when it was assigned to the genus Inostrancevia by Ivan Yefremov, before being definitively classified in a separate genus erected by Alexey Bystrow (in 1955). The most complete, known fossils of S. progressus include cranial and postcranial elements, currently all recorded from Tatarstan. These elements show that the animal was a mid-sized gorgonopsian.

Nearly complete remains listed from Tanzania have been attributed to a second species, S. parringtoni, which would make this genus the only known gorgonopsian to have lived in both Africa and Russia. However, it has been proven that this assimilation is mistaken, as it is mainly based on superficial resemblances, leaving the latter awaiting a more in-depth study to determine its relationships with other representatives of the group. Moreover, studies published post-2018 prove that S. progressus belongs to a grouping of Russian gorgonopsians, placed alongside the genera Suchogorgon, Pravoslavlevia and Inostrancevia, due to some shared cranial characteristics.