[SIZE=7]This new species of ancient carnivore was bigger than a polar bear[/SIZE]
[SIZE=6]About 22 million years ago, Simbakubwa was a fierce predator that “had lots of blades,” paleontologists report.[/SIZE]
Simbakubwa kutokaafrika, a gigantic carnivore known from most of its jaw, portions of its skull, and parts of its skeleton found in Kenya, was a member of the extinct group known as the hyaenodonts.
ILLUSTRATION BY MAURICIO ANTON
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[URL=‘https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2019/04/new-species-ancient-carnivore-was-bigger-than-polar-bear-hyaenodonts/#’]
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BY [B]CATHERINE ZUCKERMAN[/B]
PUBLISHED APRIL 18, 2019
The handful of mysterious fossils sat unstudied for decades, tucked safely in a drawer at the Nairobi National Museum in Kenya. But now, analysis of the ancient remains has revealed that they belonged to a giant meat-eating mammal larger than a polar bear, a newly described species that’s been dubbed Simbakubwa kutokaafrika.
Reported this week in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, the powerful predator prowled the Earth some 22 million years ago. Although Simbakubwa translates to “big lion” in Swahili, this behemoth was not a big cat. Instead, it is the oldest known member in a group of extinct mammals called hyaenodonts, so named due to their dental resemblance to hyenas, even though the groups are also unrelated.
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The discovery helps connect some of the evolutionary dots for this group of massive meat-eaters, which were near the top of the food chain in the same African ecosystems where early apes and monkeys were also evolving. The fossil may also help scientists better understand why these apex predators ultimately did not survive.
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The find “is a good chance for us to bring these other lesser known carnivorous predators to the surface,” says Jack Tseng, an evolutionary biologist and vertebrate paleontologist at the University at Buffalo who was not involved in the study. “Before the predecessors of modern carnivorans that we’re so familiar with—lions, hyenas, wolves—before they ever evolved, the global scene of predators was essentially dominated by these hyaenodonts."
[SIZE=6]Lots of blades[/SIZE]
In 2013, paleontologist Matthew Borths was doing research at the Nairobi museum for his dissertation on the hyaenodonts, and he asked a curator if he could look at their specimens. There, he found the unusual fossils in a cabinet that was part of a collection marked “hyenas.”
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A modern lion skull from Kenya (top) sits next to the left jaw of the 22-million-year-old carnivore Simbakubwa kutokaafrika.
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