Ancient Marsupial Relative Has The Most Powerful Bite Of Any Mammal That Has Ever Lived, Could Even Kill, Eat Small Dinosaurs

The researchers discovered that the creature "Didelphodon vorax," which was an ancient marsupial relative, had a powerful and deadly bite that could kill and eat the little dinosaurs. This early mammal was just about the size of a badger yet could munch with strong force than any other mammals.

The findings were based on the four fossils that were discovered to the 66 to 69 million-year-old Hell Creek Formation deposits in North Dakota and Montana. Other finds include a set of chompers: a partial snout, nearly a full skull and two upper jaw bones. Most of the remains of the said creature are dental.

In the study that was published in Nature, the researchers scanned the fossils and compared them to skulls and jaws from modern mammals with known bite forces to know how powerful the bite of the D. vorax. They were astonished to know that D. vorax has the most powerful and strong bite of any mammal that has ever lived on Earth.

The team also discovered that the creature's bite and the shape of its teeth could bite through bone and shell with ease. It could hunt prey that was equal to its own size and little dinosaurs, too. D. vorax was an omnivore and ate vertebrates, shellfish, bugs and plants. The researchers also found five lines of marsupial ancestors and that the marsupial relatives in North America were just larger along with other mammals over 80 million years ago, according to Earth.

Didelphodon vorax had lived during the last few million years of the Mesozoic or also referred to as dinosaur age, in the now present-day Montana and North Dakota. In the new discovery, it indicates that marsupials came from North America dated around 10 million to 20 million years. This overturned the old theory that marsupials originated in South America. Nevertheless, later, the marsupials scattered in South America, according to Live Science.