Out of a Drawer Comes a Vicious Ancient Beast

 

Ohio University biologist Nancy Stevens was looking through a drawer of a wooden container at a museum in Kenya when she saw a piece of rock with extremely large teeth.

She knew immediately she had come across something important.

The “rock” and other things she found were overlooked fossils. They were stored at the National Museums of Kenya, in the capital city of Nairobi. The fossils came from one of the largest meat-eating mammals ever to walk the Earth.

They belonged to an animal known as Simbakubwa kutokaafrika. It lived in Africa 22 million years ago.

Stevens came across the fossils in 2010. This month, she and co-writer Matthew Borths published their research about the animal in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

The animal was bigger than any meat-eating mammal alive today. Its skull¹ was the size of a rhino’s skull. Its teeth were as large as bananas. It weighed about one ton and was 2.5 meters long.

According to the research, the fossils were found around 1980 in western Kenya. But, they were never closely examined.

Stevens said, “Most of the specimens² that I study are quite small, so you can imagine my surprise when I opened a drawer that I hadn’t examined yet, and saw the enormous teeth.”

Simbakubwa was a member of a animal group that appeared 62 million years ago. That was about 4 million years after the extinction³ of the dinosaurs⁴, which created an environment for mammals to take over. The animal came before meat-eating cats and wolves.

It became extinct about 9 million years ago, researchers say.

Simbakubwa’s name means “big lion” in the Swahili language. However, it is not a cat. It was the largest animal hunter in its ecosystem⁵, and was probably the largest meat-eating land mammal in Africa up to that time.

I’m Susan Shand.

Words in This Story

drawer – n. a box that slides into and out of a piece of furniture (such as a desk) and that is used to store things

fossil – n. something (such as a leaf, skeleton, or footprint) that is from a plant or animal which lived in ancient times and that you can see in some rocks

mammal – n. a type of animal that feeds milk to its young and that usually has hair or fur covering most of its skin

skull – n. the structure of bones that holds up the face and head of a human

extinct – adj. a creature that no longer exists

paleontologist – n. the science that deals with the fossils of animals and plants that lived very long ago especially in the time of dinosaurs

1 skull   

n.头骨；颅骨

参考例句：

• The skull bones fuse between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five.头骨在15至25岁之间长合。
• He fell out of the window and cracked his skull.他从窗子摔了出去，跌裂了颅骨。

2 specimens   

n.样品( specimen的名词复数 )；范例；（化验的）抽样；某种类型的人

参考例句：

• Astronauts have brought back specimens of rock from the moon. 宇航员从月球带回了岩石标本。
• The traveler brought back some specimens of the rocks from the mountains. 那位旅行者从山上带回了一些岩石标本。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 extinction   

n.熄灭，消亡，消灭，灭绝，绝种

参考例句：

• The plant is now in danger of extinction.这种植物现在有绝种的危险。
• The island's way of life is doomed to extinction.这个岛上的生活方式注定要消失。

4 dinosaurs   

n.恐龙( dinosaur的名词复数 )；守旧落伍的人，过时落后的东西

参考例句：

• The brontosaurus was one of the largest of all dinosaurs. 雷龙是所有恐龙中最大的一种。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years. 恐龙绝种已有几百万年了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 ecosystem   

n.生态系统

参考例句：

• This destroyed the ecosystem of the island.这样破坏了岛上的生态系统。
• We all have an interest in maintaining the integrity of the ecosystem.维持生态系统的完整是我们共同的利益。