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ANDREWSARCHUS

This Giant Carnivore Ran on Hooves. Scientists Are Investigating Its Massive Skull and Crushing Teeth to Decipher the Beast’s True Nature

For more than a century, paleontologists have been piecing together how the mysterious predator Andrewsarchus is related to other mammals, like the extinct “hell pigs” and “wolves with hooves”

The beast’s head was huge. From the back to the front, its fossil skull measures more than 2.7 feet and preserves an impressive armament of piercing and crushing teeth. But what was this creature, really? Paleontologists know it as Andrewsarchus mongoliensis, and after decades of mystery, they’re still working to piece together its true nature. The animal’s impressive skull is displayed at New York City’s American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) and was found more than a century ago by Kan Chuen-pao, who was employed by the museum for a 1923 paleontology expedition to Inner Mongolia, in China. He uncovered the fossil in rocks that formed between 37 million and 47 million years ago, before modern carnivores like dogs, cats and bears began to flourish. An accurate estimate of the creature’s size was impossible given the limited material, but if it had similar proportions to other carnivorous mammals of the time, the beast was clearly a giant.  Andrewsarchus was immediately hailed as “the largest terrestrial carnivore which has thus far been discovered in any part of the world.” From the beginning, the massive skull has been key to pinning down the mammal’s identity. Andrewsarchus is, to this day, known principally from this holotype, or the first fossil to bear its name. “The museum’s holotype skull of Andrewsarchus mongoliensis is still the best material for this genus and species,” says AMNH paleontologist John Flynn. The skull is “large, complete and well-preserved,” he adds, “a spectacular fossil!” But it leaves many questions unanswered. The scientific consensus on what sort of carnivorous mammal Andrewsarchus  was has shifted several times, with each new version altering what paleontologists expect were the mammal’s anatomy and habits...

A PIG? A WOLF? A WHALE???

Read more: Smithsonian Magazine

Piglike entelodonts were proposed as possible relatives of Andrewsarchus early on. 

Heinrich Harder (1858-1935) via Wikimedia Commons under public domain

Wolfish mesonychids were also thought to be relatives of Andrewsarchus. 

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