Nochnitsa

Nochnitsa Temporal range: Permian,
Holotype block, containing skull and partial skeleton
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Clade:	Synapsida
Clade:	Therapsida
Clade:	†Gorgonopsia
Genus:	†Nochnitsa Kammerer and Masyutin, 2018
Type species
† Nochnitsa geminidens Kammerer and Masyutin, 2018

Nochnitsa is a genus of gorgonopsian therapsid from the Kotelnich red beds of Permian Russia. It contains one species, Nochnitsa geminidens. It the most basal known gorgonopsian and among the smallest members of the clade known to date.

Discovery and naming

Right side of the holotype block

Nochnitsa is known from only one specimen, the holotype KPM 310. It was found in Vanyushonki Member of the Kotelnich red beds, along the Vyatka River in Kirov Oblast, which dates to the latest Guadalupian or early Lopingian epochs.

Nochnitsa is named after the Nocnitsa, a nocturnal hag-like creature from Slavic mythology. Its name was intended as a parallel to the Gorgons, similarly hag-like creatures from Greek mythology, which are the namesake of many genera within Gorgonopsia and the clade as a whole. The name also reflects the nocturnal habits inferred for the genus. The type species name, N. geminidens, means "twin tooth" and refers to one of the autapomorphies of the species, postcanine teeth arranged in pairs.

Description

Nochnitsa is small for a gorgonopsian, with a skull only 82 millimetres (3.2 in) long. It had a relatively long snout with five incisors, a canine, and six postcanine teeth on each side. The postcanine teeth are autapomorphic for the genus in being arranged in three pairs of closely placed teeth separated by longer diastemata. In each pair, the posterior tooth is larger. The mandible is relatively slender and lacks a strong "chin", unlike other gorgonopsians.

Classification

Life restoration

Skulls of Viatkogorgon and Nochnitsa (reversed for comparison)

Nochnitsa is the most basal known gorgonopsian.

Gorgonopsia	Nochnitsa Viatkogorgon Suchogorgon Sauroctonus Pravoslavlevia Inostrancevia Eriphostoma Gorgonops Arctognathus Lycaenops Smilesaurus Arctops Rubidgeinae

Paleobiology

Nochnitsa was a small predator, unlike later gorgonopsians which were large-bodied apex predators. It was a relatively rare member of its ecosystem. The apex predators of the Kotelnich faunal assemblage were large-bodied therocephalians such as Gorynychus and Viatkosuchus.