#African #FossilFriday

Today, #Africa's iconic #predators are #carnivorans such as #hyenas, #lions, and wild #dogs. But before this group arrived, a different type of #predator roamed Africa: #hyaenodonts (despite their name, not close relatives of living carnivorans) This #hyaenodont, Pakakali (#Swahili for "fierce #cat") is from #Nsungwe, #Tanzania 🇹🇿, a #Miocene site that dates to just before the arrival of carnivorans from #Eurasia.

Image from Borths & Stevens 2017

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0185301

#NewPaper #Carnivorans #Ecology

Strampelli P, Campbell LA, Henschel P, Nicholson SK, Macdonald DW, Dickman AJ. 2022. Trends and biases in African large carnivore population assessments: identifying priorities and opportunities from a systematic review of two decades of research. PeerJ 10:e14354 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.14354

#Introduction
I’m a #Professor of Anatomy at Midwestern University (Glendale, AZ, USA)
and #Editor-in-Chief of The Anatomical Record.
Evolutionary biologist and #paleontologist focusing on Cretaceous turtles. Plus, functional morphology of extant #turtles and #carnivorans.

Referenced link: https://phys.org/news/2022-07-martens-wolverines-skunks-red-pandasgermany.html
Discuss on https://discu.eu/q/https://phys.org/news/2022-07-martens-wolverines-skunks-red-pandasgermany.html

Originally posted by Phys.org / @physorg_com@twitter.com: https://twitter.com/physorg_com/status/1547325677728309250#m

Martens, wolverines, skunks and #redpandas—Germany was once a paradise for small #carnivorans @PLOSONE https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article https://phys.org/news/2022-07-martens-wolverines-skunks-red-pandasgermany.html