Sauroctonus is an extinct genus of gorgonopsian therapsids who lived during the end of the Middle Permian in what is now European Russia. The first fossils, discovered in Tatarstan, were initially believed to belong to a new species of the South African genus Arctognathus. The taxon was designated as such until 1940, when it was assigned to the genus Inostrancevia by Ivan Yefremov, before being definitively classified in a separate genus erected by Alexey Bystrow. The most complete, known fossils of S. progressus include cranial and postcranial elements, currently all recorded from Tatarstan. These elements show that the animal was a mid-sized gorgonopsian.

Gorgonopsia is an extinct clade of sabre-toothed therapsids from the Middle to Upper Permian roughly 265 to 252 million years ago. They are characterised by a long and narrow skull, as well as elongated upper and sometimes lower canine teeth and incisors which were likely used as slashing and stabbing weapons. Postcanine teeth are generally reduced or absent. For hunting large prey, they possibly used a bite-and-retreat tactic, ambushing and taking a debilitating bite out of the target, and following it at a safe distance before its injuries exhausted it, whereupon the gorgonopsian would grapple the animal and deliver a killing bite. They would have had an exorbitant gape, possibly in excess of 90°, without having to unhinge the jaw.