A New 30-Million-Year-Old Leopard-Like Carnivore Was Found In Egypt
In the Egyptian desert, a nearly complete skull was discovered, leading experts to the conclusion that it belongs to a new 30-million-year-old species, Hyaenodonta, an ancient carnivore.
It is believed to have been the size of a leopard and a fearsome mammal with sharp teeth and powerful jaw muscles.
It would have been at the top of the food chain during a time when human ancestors were evolving. In a new study, researchers have described how the creature would have hunted primates, early elephants, early hippos, and hyraxes in Fayum, Egypt, which is now a desert but was once home to a lush forest.
“For days, the team meticulously excavated layers of rock dating back around 30 million years,” said Shorouq Al-Ashqar, the lead author of the study and a paleontologist from Mansoura University and the American University in Cairo.
“Just as we were about to conclude our work, a team member spotted something remarkable—a set of large teeth sticking out of the ground. His excited shout brought the team together, marking the beginning of an extraordinary discovery: a nearly complete skull of an ancient apex carnivore, a dream for any vertebrate paleontologist.”
The specimen, Bastetodon, belongs to a species in an extinct group of carnivorous mammals called hyaenodonts.
They evolved long before modern carnivores, such as dogs, cats, and hyenas. They had teeth resembling those of hyenas and hunted in African ecosystems after dinosaurs went extinct.
The team named the specimen after Bastet, the ancient Egyptian goddess often depicted with the head of a cat. She symbolized pleasure, protection, and good health.
The skull was unearthed in the Fayum Depression, an area that contains about 15 million years of evolutionary history of mammals in Africa.
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Within this timespan, the transition from the Eocene’s global warming to the Oligocene’s global cooling took place, revealing how they shaped ecosystems.
The discovery of Bastetodon has also allowed the team to reevaluate Sekhmetops, a group of lion-sized hyaenodonts that was uncovered in Fayum more than 120 years ago.
In 1904, the genus Sekhmetops was placed within a European group of hyaenodonts. However, the team found that Bastetodon and Sekhmetops both belonged to hyaenodonts that originated in Africa. Their relatives branched out from Africa and eventually reached Asia, India, Europe, and North America.
By 18 million years ago, some of these relatives became the largest carnivores on the planet. But global climate and tectonic changes in Africa paved the way for the relatives of modern cats, dogs, and hyenas. As a result, carnivorous hyaenodonts grew less diverse and finally went extinct.
“The discovery of Bastetodon is a significant achievement in understanding the diversity and evolution of hyaenodonts and their global distribution,” said Shorouq.
“We are eager to continue our research to unravel the intricate relationships between these ancient predators and their environments over time and across continents.”
The findings were published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
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