Research has shown that Sabre-toothed mammal sizes similar to bears lived between 300 million and 250 millions years ago on Earth. They bit each other’s faces, according to newly published research.
Known as gorgonopsians, these massive animals — which had five-inch teeth like ‘steak knives’ — likely attacked one another for social dominance, the researchers said.
Experts from the University of the Witwatersrand, Iziko South African museum, examined the skull of a gorgonopsian who discovered New Cape Town, South Africa. They discovered an embedded tooth within the snout.
Although the researcher is not 100% of the attackers, the “most likely scenario” of social signaling by the attackers with their “saberlike teeth,” the researchers stated in the study.
According to news reports, Gorgonopsians bit each other’s faces in an attack on one another.
Social biting has been a longstanding theory. [non-mammalian therapsids]This is not the first fossilized evidence to support the behavior.
South African paleontologist Lieuwe Dik Boonstra first found the skull in Karoo desert, in 1940. However, the bite mark wasn’t discovered until much later in this year.
The genus of the genus is not yet known. GorgonopsidThe skull belonged to Gorgonopsid curvimolaIt eventually was identified as undetermined.
Julien Benoit, the lead researcher of this study, stated that “if we are correct in saying this bite was the result of ritualized head-biting between gorgonopsians,’ then it is the first evidence to support social biting behavior among non-mammalian Synapsids,” in comments received by Live Science.
While the skull was found in South Africa in 1940 by a German archaeologist, it wasn’t until recent years that experts discovered an embedded tooth inside its nose. Given the callus that is on its skull, it’s likely that the bite didn’t kill this gorgonopsian.
They are also called ‘gorgons’ and can grow to be as long as 10 feet.
Benoit said that, ‘Unlike predatory bites meant to kill, non lethal face biting occurs in these types of ritualized fighting’.
“This strongly suggests to us that the biter may have been another gorognopsian from the same species. This is consistent with how large the tooth was.”
Gorgonopsians were one of the most powerful predators during the Paleozoic (the era before dinosaurs).
Their extinctions occurred 250 million year ago.
South African paleontologist Lieuwe Dik Boonstra discovered the skull in Karoo Desert in 1940.
Gorgons are also called ‘gorgons. They grew up to 10 feet in length and were some of the most dangerous predators known.
In 2020, a separate group of researchers found that gorgonopsians had 5-inch canines ‘like steak knives’ with a saw-like design once though unique to meat-eating dinosaurs.
Four years prior, researchers discovered a cancerous tumor in the jaw of a gorgonopsid, making it the world’s oldest cancer case.
Gorgonopsians were one of the most powerful predators from the Paleozoic. They went extinct 250 millions years ago
Given the presence of a callus in its skull, it is likely that the bite did not cause death for the gorgonopsian.
‘The presence of a callus suggests that the gorgonopsian was bitten 2–9 weeks before it died based on mammalian healing capabilities,’ the researchers wrote.
“The absence of any drainage channel or evidence of infection, suggests that an infection from the bite wasn’t the reason for death.
It’s possible that it may have been an anteosuar, or another unknown carnivore who attacked the gorgonopsian.
It is possible that the antosaur may be a gorgonopsian. Anteosaurs were known for having ‘large teeth’ and a crushing bite. This was not consistent with the tiny size of the embedded tooth, and the light damage that has been observed. [the skull,]”, wrote the research team.
The research was published this summer in the scientific journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution and presented last week at the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology conference.