Extinct, Kitten-Sized Hunter Stalked the Earth 13 Million Years Ago

First Posted: May 09, 2014 06:13 AM EDT
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Archaeologists have discovered an ancient, kitten-sized hunter that lived 13 million years ago. One of the smallest species to be found in the order Sparassodonta, researchers are now learning a bit more about this predator after examining its remains.

"The animal would have been about the size of a marten, a catlike weasel found in the Northeastern United States and Canada, and probably filled the same ecological niche," said Russell Engelman, one of the researchers, in a news release.

The remains of a new species consists of a skull, which would have been a little less than three inches long if it were complete. Unfortunately, the teeth aren't well-preserved, causing scientists to refrain from naming for now.

That said, the animal probably had a very short snout and large canines, which were round in cross-section much like those of a meat-eating marsupial, called the spotted-tailed quoll. And while sparassodonts are more closely related to modern opossums than cats or dogs, the group included saber-toothed species that fed on large prey.

"Most predators don't go after animals of equal size, but these features indicate this small predator was a formidable hunter," said Darin Croft, one of the researchers, in a news release. "No single feature found in the skull was so distinctive that would we could one way or the other what it was, but the combination of features is unique and says this is a sparassodont."

While the animal's features are a mixture of those found in different species of sparassodonts, they're not characteristic of any one subgroup. This places the species near the bottom of the family tree.

The findings reveal a little bit more about this extinct, ancient predator. Currently, the researchers hope to find the lower jaw of the species, would might enable direct comparisons with known species and allow scientists to actually name the animal.

The findings are published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

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