Today the opposite bear is the large carnivorous land mammal , but bones and teeth found in a draftsman at the National Museums of Kenya come up from a creature that was probably even larger , an other example of giant mammalian predators .
deficiency of funds think museums worldwide are load with exceptional specimens that have never been properly take and the National Museums of Kenya have more than most . During a dejeuner geological fault while working there , Dr Matthew Borths , then at Ohio University , decide to open some neglected - look drawers . He found a set of bones from what was understandably an enormous carnivore , which had been discount because the people who found it at Meswa Bridge , westerly Kenya , were focused on seeking extinct apes .
The beast , which Borths has namedSimbakubwa kutokaafrika , stalk the grassland of Africa some 22 million yr ago . The name comes from the Swahili word for “ big lion ” , rather than the Disney case , but this was no member of the big cat mob . alternatively , Simbakubwawas a hyaenodont , which , to keep up the confusion , were unrelated to hyaenas , but had similar - looking teeth . The specimen ’s jaw and terrifying teeth are the most complete we have of its branch of the wide hyaenodont category .
Another paleontologist might not have do it what to make of the bones , but Borths has a background in the study of hyaenodonts and actualise he was onto something big .
After the demise of the non - avian dinosaurs , hyaenodonts were quick off the mark to fill the available niche . Africa ’s dominant predator fellowship for 45 million age , with an additional front on other continents , they diversified into hundreds of mintage of many unlike sizes . Meanwhile , cats and wienerwurst and actual hyenas were acquire in Eurasia . When the continents came into liaison , the hyaenodonts went into sharp decline . Simbakubwawas among the last , as well as one of the largest , hyaenodonts , although a few coinage hung on for millions more years .
Together withProfessor Nancy Stevens , Borths has published the first description ofSimbakubwain theJournal of Vertebrate Paleontology . ground on its rhinoceros - sized head it could have weighed anything from 280 to 1,500 kilo ( 600 - 3,300 pounds ) , ranging from the size of a large Leo the Lion to bigger than a polar bear . It was probably its era ’s turgid African marauder and had canine teeth suited to shearing flesh , although those of the specimen are unworn , suggest it was young . Its molars were suited to cracking bones .
Despite being late among its genus , Simbakubwawas a foreshadowing of what was to come , the oldest really large mammalian carnivore we have found in the fossil record . change in the African landscape had allowed herbivores to raise bigger , support gravid carnivore in twist and this stay for 10 - 15 million years .
