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Updated April 19th, 2019 at 15:43 IST

Scientists discover ancient carnivore with canines 'as big as bananas'

Scientists discovered of a carnivore that walked the Kenyan Savannah nearly 22 million years ago. Researchers claimed that the specie with enormous fangs might have been historically one of the largest meat-eating mammals. 

Reported by: Digital Desk
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Scientists discovered of a carnivore that walked the Kenyan Savannah nearly 22 million years ago. Researchers claimed that the specie with enormous fangs might have been historically one of the largest meat-eating mammals. 

Paleontologist Mauricio Anton named the giant creodont as ‘Simbakubwa Kutokaafrika’, that as per its ancient remains belonged from Africa. Although ‘Simbakubwa Kutokaafrika’, the name translates to 'Big Lion', the beast was not a 'Big Cat'.

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Anton along with his team of scientists unearthed the lower jaw, teeth and other bones of the carnivore on Thursday from Nairobi National Museum in Kenya.

The study of the fossil described was known to retrieved sometime between 1978 and 1981 and as per the calculations of the scientists, they estimated that it would have weighed up to 1,500 kilograms.

As per global reports, the Kenyan creature was gigantic and could easily prey on elephant-sized herbivores of that time with its canines as big as that of ‘bananas’.

"Based on its massive teeth, Simbakubwa was a specialized hyper-carnivore that was significantly larger than the modern lion and possibly larger than a polar bear," said Borths, from Duke University, who co-led the research with Ohio University.

An artist's impression of the creature depicts a giant big-cat-like hunter with stripes on its body has surfaced all over the internet.

The researchers have further called the survival epoch of the mammal as a ‘key period’ in the evolution of carnivores animals. They stated how the discovery could reveal the evolution of supersized predators and their preys over millions of years around the end of the Paleogene era, a period where mammals grew from tiny rodents further evolving into many diverse species.

(With PTI inputs)

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Published April 18th, 2019 at 22:08 IST

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