Sabre-tooth fossils were discovered in Russia, it was reported on Friday (June 8) and they were able to shed some light on the life they lived. According to CBC, one of the skulls resembled a wolf in size and had blade-like teeth. The other skull was smaller with a longer snout, larger eye sockets, and had needle-like teeth. The paleontologists seem to be quite excited about the new fossil finds in Russia.

Saber-toothed creature roamed Russia millions of years ago

These specific Sabre-toothed animals have already been named in Russia Newsweek reported.

The larger one that resembles a wolf is called Gorynychus (named after a 3-headed dragon), and the smaller one is called Nochnitsa, which was named after a nocturnal spirit. As reported by CBC, "They roamed what is now modern-day Russia between 299 and 252 million years ago during what's known as the Permian Period."

The two paleontologists that are on point with these fossils are Christian Kammerer who belongs to the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and Vladimir Masyutin, part of the Vyatka Paleontological Museum in Kirov, Russia. They both published their works on Friday about the different species in the journal on the PeerJ website.

Knowledge found in the bones

According to CBC, most of the paleontologists and other scientists have relied on just one section of the world for its knowledge of the proto-mammals, aka Sabre-tooth tigers, and that place is Karoo Basin of South Africa.

They enjoy working this section of the earth because of the amazing geological features that are unique to Karoo Basin. Over half of this area is made of a particular rock that was part of the Permian period and this area is also technically a stable land mass according to Christian Kammerer. Kammerer was cited by CBC as saying that one of the reasons why he likes the Russian site is because there are more patterns than at their South African sites.

This discovery about when Kammerer was visiting Russia for a conference and went to the Vyatka Paleontological Museum in Kirov. He wasn't expecting to come across all of these gorgonopsian fossils that were beautifully intact and displayed. According to Kammerer, his team and himself are the only ones doing extensive research on these specific extinct animals.

Kammerer went on to describe how he was amazed at finding these prehistoric animals. During a closer look at the fossils, Kammerer noted the proto-mammals' jaw structures that included certain bones that were previously found in higher-up mammals like humans, that later evolved to be part of the hearing apparatus of the inner ear.

Thanks to Kammerer's visit, his Russia colleagues were able to discover that they had some other unidentified fossils in their collection.