Viatkogorgon is a genus of gorgonopsian (a type of therapsid, a group that includes modern mammals) that lived during the Permian Period in what is now Russia. The first fossil was named as V. ivachnenkoi after the paleontologist M. F. Ivakhnenko. It was found at the Kotelnich near the river Vyatka in 1999. The holotype skeleton (pictured) is one of the most complete gorgonopsian specimens known and includes some rarely preserved elements, including gastralia and a sclerotic ring. A larger, less well preserved specimen has also been assigned to this species. The smaller specimen is about 80 cm (31 in) long, including the 14 cm (5.5 in) skull, and may have been a young animal. It was robust with a dog-like stance, high snout, and very large canine teeth. Gorgonopsians would have been relatively fast predators, which killed their prey by delivering slashing bites with their saber-teeth, and this genus may have been adapted for swimming.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viatkogorgon

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1917:

First World War: The Canadian Corps began the first wave of attacks at the Battle of Vimy Ridge in Vimy, France. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vimy_Ridge

1942:

World War II: Japanese forces defeated Allied troops at the Battle of Bataan in the Philippines before beginning to forcibly transfer more than 90,000 prisoners of war to prison camps in the Bataan Death March. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bataan_Death_March

1980:

Iraqi philosopher Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr and his sister Amina were executed by the regime of Saddam Hussein. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Baqir_al-Sadr

1999:

President of Niger Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara was shot dead by soldiers in Niamey. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibrahim_Bar%C3%A9_Ma%C3%AFnassara

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

grandfather: 1. (transitive, chiefly US, law) To retain existing laws or rules for (a person or organization previously affected by them). 2. (intransitive, chiefly US, law) To retain existing laws or rules only for people or organizations previously affected by them, and to apply new laws or rules to the unaffected people or organizations. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/grandfather

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Russia is not full of terrible people. It’s just that their leadership has gone so horribly wrong. ... A lot of the world is reacting in the right way. They are angry and they are frustrated. You can see and hear the frustration in the leaders of the other world’s countries. We can see it in the voice of your president, President Biden. He has let slip a couple of his feelings a couple of times over there. Other world leaders have done the same. And I think there’s a groundswell of opinion worldwide. This sort of thing shouldn’t be able to happen. It shouldn’t be able to be allowed. But we are in a world where still, here we are, a fifth of the way through the 21st century and still this obscene situation can happen. The mind boggles.   --David Gilmour https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Gilmour