Latest news with #ShorouqAl-Ashqar
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Scientists Rescued the 15-Million-Year-Old Skull of a Hypercarnivore From Obscurity
Scientists have discovered a nearly complete skull of a Hyaenodonta, a hypercarnivore that that lived during the Oligocene Epoch some 20 million years ago. Scientifically known as Bastetodon syrtos, this impressive apex predator likely hunted elephants, early hippos, and even humanity's monkey-like ancestors. This discovery should help scientists further investigate the ecosystems of ancient Africa and the evolution of many modern mammals. Some 30 million years ago, during what's known as the Oligocene Epoch, a leopard-like hypercarnivore—that is, an animal whose diet is at least 70 percent meat—stalked the lush forest of Fayum, Egypt. Its impressive set of razor-sharp teeth ensured its position as the region's apex predator, and its evolutionary progeny eventually became some of the largest mammalian meat eaters to ever roam the planet. But despite its place at the top of the food chain, paleontologists knew nothing about this ancient mammal—until, that is, a nearly complete skull of one of these impressive predators was discovered. Back in its heyday, this animal likely stalked hyraxes, elephants, early hippopotamuses, and even humanity's own monkey-like ancestors. A member of the extinct order of Hyaenodonta (which means 'hyena teeth'), this fearsome meat-eater received the name Bastetodon syrtos—an allusion to the Ancient Egyptian lion-headed goddess Bastet. Details about B. syrtos and its impact on understanding ancient African ecology were published earlier this week in the Journal of Invertebrate Paleontology. Paleontologists located B. syrtos' football-sized skull in the Fayum Depression—an area with a century-long paleontological history that, crucially, straddles a 15-million-year window including both the Eocene's global warming to the Oligocene's global cooling. Experts from the Mansoura University and the American University in Cairo actually almost missed the skull entirely, until an eagle-eyed team member glimpsed something surprising. 'For days, the team meticulously excavated layers of rock dating back around 30 million years,' Shorouq Al-Ashqar, lead author of the study from Mansoura University, said in a press statement. '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.' Thanks to this discovery, the team was also able to re-analzye another member of the Hyaenodont genus, Sekhmetops (named for Sekhmet, another lion-headed goddess), which was originally discovered 120 years ago. Although it was originally thought to have a European origin, this study shows how both B. syrtos and Sekhmetops would have actually spread from Africa in multiple waves to nearly every continent on the globe. Sadly, the good times didn't last, and specialized Hyaenodonts eventually declined in genetic diversity. They finally went extinct in the late Miocene and gave way to new top predators, including the ancient ancestors of modern cats. 'The discovery of Bastetodon is a significant achievement in understanding the diversity and evolution of hyaenodonts and their global distribution,' Shorouq said in a press statement. 'We are eager to continue our research to unravel the intricate relationships between these ancient predators and their environments over time and across continents.' You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?
USA Today
18-02-2025
- Science
- USA Today
Video shows 30-million-year-old skull of apex predator that could solve extinction riddle
Video shows 30-million-year-old skull of apex predator that could solve extinction riddle Show Caption Hide Caption Nearly complete skull of apex carnivore found in Egypt A nearly complete skull of a leopard-sized carnivore was discovered in the Egyptian desert. In a rare find, a team of scientists in Egypt uncovered a nearly complete skull that offers insight into a not-before-discovered apex predator species that lived 30 million years ago. Published on Monday in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, the results of the desert dig painted the picture of a fearsome, big-cat creature with a strong jaw and sharp teeth that occupied the spot at the top of the food chain during the Oligocene Epoch era. Discovered in Fayum, Egypt, the powerful predator would have lived in a then-tropical rainforest environment. The newly-discovered species, named Bastetodon syrtos, is part of the Hyaenodonta family, an extinct species of carnivore that evolved long before modern cats, dogs and hyenas but resembled early versions of modern big cats. This lineage once ruled the food chain in the time after dinosaurs went extinct, preying on primates, early hippos, early elephants and hyraxes, but were later wiped out themselves. In life, the Bastetodon was leopard-sized with a short, cat-like snout, hyena-like teeth and a dog-like body. A 'dream' discovery The discovery of the most complete skull ever found belonging to the hyaenodonta subfamily hyainailourinae almost didn't happen, according to paleontologist and lead author Shorouq Al-Ashqar 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," she said in a statement. "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 team, called Sallam Lab, made the find while digging in the Fayum Depression, a basin in the desert known as one of the most significant fossil deposits in Africa. They chose to name the newly-found species after the ancient Egyptian goddess Bastet, the cat-headed symbol of protection, pleasure and good health. New skull may help solve extinction riddle The discovery also prompted Sallam Lab scientists to re-visit the findings on a separate lion-sized Hyaenodont species discovered more than 120 years ago. The team constructed the genus of Sekhmetop, named after the lion-headed goddess of wrath and war Sekhmet, and found that it, like the Bastetodon, originated in Africa and not Europe as 1904 scientists originally thought. This finding gives scientists some more insight into what exactly happened to the once-fierce king of the jungle and its kin. Hyaenodonts lived in Asia, Europe, India and North America - the new study demonstrates that Bastetodon and Sekhmetop likely spread from Africa to these regions in waves. The team theorized that "cataclysmic" changes in global climate and tectonic shifts made way for the distant relatives of modern cats, dogs and hyenas to begin evolving. As the environment and therefore its prey changed, hyaendodonts diminished in diversity and eventually went extinct. "The discovery of Bastetodon is a significant achievement in understanding the diversity and evolution of hyaenodonts and their global distribution,' Al-Ashqa's statement continued. 'We are eager to continue our research to unravel the intricate relationships between these ancient predators and their environments over time and across continents.'
BBC News
18-02-2025
- Science
- BBC News
Ancient 'fearsome' cat-like skull discovered by palaeontologists
A team of scientists in Egypt have found a rare ancient skull belonging to a "fearsome" cat-like palaeontologists think the skull belongs to a new species of hyaenodonta - which is an extinct deadly predator that lived around 30 million-years had sharp teeth like a hyena, and were around the size of a leopard, hunting primates and early hippos across Africa after the research team - also known as Sallam Lab - named the new species Bastetodon, after the ancient Egyptian cat-headed goddess Bastet, and "-odon" meaning "tooth". The skull was discovered in the Fayum Depression, in Egypt, an area where digs have revealed important artifacts over 15 million years of evolutionary history of mammals in about the discovery, palaeontologist and lead author, Shorouq Al-Ashqar, said "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 paleontologist," she added. This new discovery also allowed the team to make note of differences in previous discoveries from 120 years ago."The discovery of Bastetodon is a significant achievement in understanding the diversity and evolution of hyaenodonts," Shorouq added."We are eager to continue our research to unravel the intricate relationships between these ancient predators and their environments over time and across continents."
Ammon
18-02-2025
- Science
- Ammon
An apex carnivore was ‘king of the ancient Egyptian forest' then mysteriously went extinct
Ammon News - With sharp catlike teeth and a doglike body, ancient carnivores called hyaenodonts were once at the top of the food chain, but the entire lineage was wiped out about 25 million years ago, leaving prehistorians to grapple with what caused the apex predator to go extinct. Now, an international team of paleontologists has found a new piece of the puzzle — a nearly complete skull of a previously unidentified species of hyaenodonta. The discovery could bring scientists one step closer to understanding these ferocious beasts and their evolutionary history. The fossil, which was unearthed in the Fayum Depression of Egypt's Western Desert, is the most complete skull of the hyaenodonta subfamily Hyainailourinae to be found in Africa. The skull dates back to the early Oligocene Epoch around 30 million years ago, according to a study published Monday in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. When the study authors uncovered the skull in 2020, they shouted excitedly as they realized their rare find, recalled lead author Shorouq Al-Ashqar, a doctoral student at Mansoura University Vertebrate Paleontology Center and a research assistant at American University in Cairo. The researchers named the leopard-size species Bastetodon syrtos as a nod to the cat-headed ancient Egyptian goddess Bastet because of the species' unique shorter snout compared with other hyaenodonts, according to the study. Combined with sharp, knifelike teeth, the snout would have given the creature an extremely powerful bite, according to Ashqar. The fossil provides a rare glimpse into a time of global environmental changes and faunal turnover, when some species go extinct while new ones are introduced due to varying changes in the habitat. Those changes helped determine the cat and dog predators seen today, researchers said. Ancient apex carnivores Hyaenodonta fossils have been found across North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. Some were as big as rhinos, while others resembled small weasels. During the Oligocene period, the Fayum Depression was a lush, tropical rainforest. Bastetodon would have preyed on primates such as Aegyptopithecus, an ancient relative of humans, as well as early hippos and elephants. 'I think of them as like really beefy wolverines or basically like pitbulls. They have really big heads that were just covered in muscle,' said study coauthor Dr. Matthew Borths, curator of fossils at the Duke Lemur Center Museum of Natural History at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. It is rare to find ancient carnivore fossils because there are fewer carnivores in an ecosystem than other animals such as herbivores. (For instance, you're more likely to see a squirrel or a deer on a hike than a cougar, Borths said.) And often, only teeth or fragments of skulls are found, he added. The discovery of such a complete skull allows researchers to learn concrete traits of the animal, such as how big muscle attachments were compared with the size of its teeth, the size of its brain or even the strength of its sense of smell, Borths said. Researchers also compared the Bastetodon skull with the fossils of another, bigger hyaenodonta species found in Africa about 120 years ago. Dubbed Sekhmetops by the study authors, the latter group was originally thought to be related to a European group of hyaenodonts. While there were only jaws and cheekbones found of the larger species, the researchers were able to compare findings from those remains with the Bastetodon skull and demonstrate that both carnivores belonged to the same group of hyaenodonts that originated in Africa. 'It is rare to find such a complete specimen, preserving not just the robust teeth but also delicate aspects of cranial anatomy,' said Dr. Nancy Stevens, an anthropology professor and director of the Museum of Natural History at the University of Colorado Boulder, in an email. 'It is only with detailed analyses of specimens like this that we can explore the complex movement patterns of predators across the landscapes of the past,' said Stevens, who was not involved with the study. 'This gives rise to a better understanding of the faunal dynamics around us today.' CNN
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Rare Egyptian skull sheds light on ‘fearsome' new 30-million-year-old leopard-sized predator
Archaeologists have announced a rare and extraordinary discovery made in the Egyptian desert. Scientists found the nearly complete skull of a new 30-million-year-old 'top apex' predator. '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,' paleontologist Shorouq Al-Ashqar, from Mansoura University and the American University in Cairo, said in a statement. Al-Ashqar was the lead author of a study published Monday in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. The 'fearsome carnivore' is a new species of ancient Hyaenodonta: a deadly and agile mammal the size of a modern-day leopard. Known as a Bastetodon, the animal had sharp teeth and a powerful bite to rip into its prey, including the hyraxes, early elephants and hippos, and primates that lived in the former forest of Fayum. Hyaenodonts hunted in African ecosystems after the extinction of the dinosaurs. Bastetodon was named for the cat-headed Egyptian goddess Bastet, who symbolized protection, pleasure, and good health. It was also an acknowledgment of its cat-like snout and the region where the skull was found. But, in addition to this remarkable finding, the researchers were able to understand more about a new species discovered more than 120 years ago. The group Sekhmetops, lion-sized hyaenodonts also discovered in the rocks of the Fayum, had been placed within a European group. Sekhmetops was named to honor the lion-headed goddess of wrath and war. Now, researchers say it actually belonged to a group of hyaenodonts that originated in Africa, like Bastetodon. In 2019, paleontologists — including the new study's co-author Dr. Matthew Borths — announced the discovery of hyaenodont fossils in Kenya had revealed a new species larger than a polar bear, named Simbakubwa kutokaafrika. Relatives spread from Africa in waves and, by 18 million years ago, their relatives were among the largest mammalian meat-eaters to ever walk the planet. Climate and tectonic shifts in Africa opened the continent to the relatives of modern cats, dogs, and hyenas. And, the carnivorous hyaenodonts went extinct. 'The discovery of Bastetodon is a significant achievement in understanding the diversity and evolution of hyaenodonts and their global distribution,' Shorouq noted.
