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With sharp cat -like teeth and a dog -like body, the old carnivores, the hyaenodontes, once stood at the top of the food chain, but the entire descent was wiped out about 25 million years ago, so that the Prehistorians from what had died out of the APEX predator, to be dealt with.
Now an international team of paleontologists have found a new puzzle part – an almost complete skull of a previously unidentified type of hyaenodonta. The discovery could bring scientists a step closer to the understanding of these wild beasts and their evolutionary history.
The fossil, which was discovered in the Fayum depression of the western desert of Egypt, is the most complete skull of the Hyaenodonta sub -family Hyainailourinae, which can be found in Africa. The skull comes from the early Oligocene era around 30 million years ago, as a study, which was published on Monday in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
When the authors of the study discovered the skull in 2020, she called up when they recognized their rare find, remembered the main author Shorouq al-Ashqar, a doctoral student at the vertebral paleontology center of Mansoura University and research assistant at the American University in Cairo.
“It was an amazing moment …” said Ashqar. “This skull is important to us, not only because it is complete and three -dimensional, and in fact it is beautiful, but also new properties to learn more about this extinct group of carnivorous animals.”
The skull shown here, which is depicted with the main study author Shaorouq al-Ashqar, is part of a previously unidentified way that was basteted as an allusion to the Katyphen old Egyptian goddess. – with the kind permission of Hesham Sallam
The researchers called the Leopard Size BASTETODON SYROS as an allusion to the Kat -headed old Egyptian goddess, based on the unique shorter snout of the species compared to other hyaenodons. In combination with sharp, knife -like teeth, the snout of the creature would have given an extremely powerful bite, according to Ashqar.
“To be honest, we can say that the king of the ancient Egyptian forest was bastrootone,” said Ashqar.
The fossil gives a rare insight into a time of global environmental changes and fauna sales when some species are extinct, while new ones are introduced due to different changes in the habitat. Researchers said these changes have contributed to determining the cats and dog predators seen today.
Old apex meat eaters
Hyaenodonta fossils were found in North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. Some were as big as rhinos, while other little weasel resembled.
During the oligocene, Fayum depression was a lavish, tropical rainforest. BASTETODON would have hunted primates such as Aegyptopithecus, an old relative of people as well as early hippos and elephants.
Paleontologists discovered the skull in 2020 in the Fayum depression of the western desert of Egypt. – with the kind permission of Hesham Sallam
“I consider them as a really strong Wolverines or basically like Pitbulls. They have really big heads that were only covered with muscles, ”said the co -author of Study, Dr. Matthew Borths, curator for fossils in the Duke Lemur Center Museum of Natural History at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.
It is rare to find old carnivores because there are fewer carnivore in an ecosystem than other animals such as herbivores. (For example, they see a squirrel or a deer on a hike than a puma, said Borths.) And often only teeth or skull fragments are found, he added.
The discovery of such a complete skull enables the researchers to learn concrete characteristics of the animal, e.g.
The researchers also compared the bastrooton skull with the fossils of another, larger Hyaenodonta species, which was found in Africa about 120 years ago. The latter group was mentioned by the authors of the study and was originally associated with a European group of hyaenodontes. While there were only pine and cheekbones of the larger species, the researchers were able to compare the results of the remains with the bastroot mode skull and show that both carnivores belonged to the same group of hyaenodontes that came from Africa.
“It is rare to find such a complete copy that not only preserves the robust teeth, but also the sensitive aspects of the skull anatomy” in an e -mail.
“We can only examine the complex movement patterns of predators in the landscapes of the past with detailed analysis of copies,” said Stevens, who was not involved in the study. “This leads to a better understanding of faunald dynamics around us.”
Faunal turnover
The border between Eocene and Oligocene was a global cooling event that occurred about 34 million years ago, which led to mass extinction and large fauna turnover. The survived hyaenodons then showed how adaptable and resilient the animals were, said Borths.
A few million years later, however, they were extinct and were replaced by the relatives of dogs, cats and hyenas. Due to the abundance of gaps in the fossil stock, paleontologists can better understand why the once successful hyaenodontes are triggered and how much adaptation and pressure from the environment can deal with an descent, Borths added.
“The end of the hyaenodonta in the late Oligozene shows how climate change, competitive pressure and changes to the availability of prey have affected,” said Dr. Cathrin Pfaff, postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at the Institute for Paleontology at the University of Vienna in Austria. She was not involved in the study.
“The fact that they lost in their development of cats and dogs is still a mystery, but could be caused by their highly specialized dentition,” said Pfaff in an e -mail and referred to the arrangement and development of the teeth Animals. “For this reason, one of the find described here, which is described here, brings us a step closer to solving the secret, even if it is only a medium -sized copy.”
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