Palaeontologists have uncovered a rare, near-complete skull of a 30-million-year-old apex predator in the Egyptian desert.
With sharp teeth and powerful jaw muscles, the newly identified Bastetodon is thought to have been leopard-sized and at the top of its food chain at the same time our monkey-like ancestors were evolving.
The findings, which were published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, say that the creature would have likely preyed on primates, early elephants and hippos, and hyraxes in the forests of Fayum, Egypt – now a desert.
Palaeontologist and lead author Shorouq Al-Ashqar, from Mansoura University and the American University in Cairo, says "For days, the team meticulously excavated layers of rock dating back around 30 million years.
“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 palaeontologist.”
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The skull was unearthed during the team's – who go by the title 'Sallam Lab’ – expedition to the Fayum Depression, which is in the Egyptian desert to the west of the River Nile. The region is famed for its fossils and Ancient Egyptian artefacts, and digs in the area have revealed a window of around 15 million years of evolutionary history of mammals in Africa.
Bastetodon belongs to an extinct group of carnivorous mammals known as hyaenodonts. The predators, which had hyena-like teeth, evolved long before modern-day carnivores such as cats and dogs and hunted in African ecosystems after the extinction of the dinosaurs.
The study demonstrates how the relatives of Bastetodon spread from Africa in multiple waves, eventually making it to Asia, Europe, India and North America. However, global climates and tectonic shifts eventually led to the decline and eventual extinction of hyaenodonts, say the authors.
Main image: Rocks in the Fayum Depression region / Getty
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