The University of Oregon.
A new predator has been hiding in plain sight.
The fossil specimen was on display at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC, for decades before it was taken off-exhibit for renovations.
The animal had long, sharp, saber-shaped teeth, but it was much larger than the other saber-toothed animals that existed around the same time. The way its skull was made was different. The new species name was Eusmilus adelos. The species is described in a paper.
"For its time period, it was very large, like a modern-day lion," he said.
The nimravids are mammals with cat-like body types that lived around 7 million years ago. Most saber-toothed nimravids were the same size as a cat. This one was close in size to Smilodon, a group of saber-toothed tigers that lived millions of years after the extinction of nimravids.
The new finding prompted a rethink of the evolution of nimravids.
"Our ideas of how nimravids evolved is that they got more saber-toothed until they went extinct," he said. The analyses focused on the size and shape of the nimravids' teeth.
The size and shape of the limbs and spine were some of the features that were considered. The skull contains passages for nerves, veins and arteries. There was a more complex story that emerged with those new details.
He proposed that nimravids split into two groups early on. One of those groups had saber teeth. A variety of species that look similar to cats were branched out by the other.
A pattern that started millions of years ago reappeared in the family that includes modern cats. The cats we know today are the result of a group of animals with different types of teeth.
He said that the nimvards are "converging on what we see in cats today, but tens of millions of years earlier."
nimravids are often described as cat-like. Cats have copied them.
The largest hoplophonine and a complex new hypothesis of nimravid evolution is the information provided by Paul Zachary Barrett. The DOI is 10.1038/s41598-021-0
Scientific reports are in the journal.
A Grad student found a new saber-toothed species in a museum collection.
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