The therapsids dominated the land trades before the dinosaurs arrived in the Triassic Period, and even in the Triassic itself they gave the dinosaurs a run for their money. They included some huge animals: herbivores three metres long, with large and probably ferocious carnivores to prey on them, including the gorgonopsids (see below), whose fearsome canine teeth make one think of the sabretoothed cats and marsupials of later times.
