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Size comparison between a person and Inostrancevia (reconstructed with long lips and some hair). Earlier gorgonopsids in the Middle Permian were quite small, with skull lengths of 10–15 cm (4–6 in), [1] whereas some later genera attained massive, bear-like sizes with the largest being Inostrancevia up to 3.5 m (11 ft) in length and 300 kg (660 lb) in body mass. [2]
The Gorgons (/ ˈ ɡ ɔːr ɡ ən z / GOR-gənz; Ancient Greek: Γοργώνες), [2] in Greek mythology, are three monstrous sisters, Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa, said to be the daughters of Phorcys and Ceto.
At long irregular intervals, Earth's biosphere suffers a catastrophic die-off, a mass extinction, [9] often comprising an accumulation of smaller extinction events over a relatively brief period. [10] The first known mass extinction was the Great Oxidation Event 2.4 billion years ago, which killed most of the planet's obligate anaerobes.
Jane Ellen Harrison argues that "her potency only begins when her head is severed, and that potency resides in the head; she is in a word a mask with a body later appended... the basis of the Gorgoneion is a cultus object, a ritual mask misunderstood." [10] In the Odyssey xi, Homer does not specifically mention the Gorgon Medusa:
Members of this genus are found in coldwater environments including the Arctic, the Antarctic, and deep-sea habitats. The scientific name comes from the Greek, gorgós meaning "dreaded" and -cephalus meaning "head", and refers to the similarity between these echinoids and the Gorgon's head from Greek myth with its coiled serpents for hair. [2]
This group includes land snails and land slugs. Loss of the shell has taken place many times in different groups that are not evolutionarily closely related, and land snails and slugs are most often treated together as a single group in specialized malacological literature. [2] [3] All terrestrial molluscs belong to the class Gastropoda.
It is called Gorgons dewstick, [1] fly bush or fly catcher bush in English and vliebos, or vlieëbossie in Afrikaans. [ 2 ] (but these names are also used for its relative R. dentata ). R. gorgonias is an endemic species home to the southwest of the Western Cape province of South Africa.
On land, the holdover plants included the lycophytes, the dominant cycads, Ginkgophyta (represented in modern times by Ginkgo biloba) and glossopterids. The spermatophytes , or seed plants came to dominate the terrestrial flora: in the northern hemisphere, conifers flourished.