Prehistoric Marine Bear ate more like Sabertoothed Cat than Sea Otter
Kolponomos is a carnivorous mammal which existed 20 million years ago and belonged to the family of mammals such as cats, seals, bears, civets, and the dog. The mammal is thought to have inherited teeth like that of otter. The new discovery about this species links it to Smilodon, a sabertoothed cat. According to paleontologist Jack Tseng and colleagues, there existed a similar jaw structure in both.
Heavy molars in Kolponomos have suggested that the prehistoric animal relied on hard-shelled marine invertebrates for food while their large neck muscle attachments and robust bones along with other features put it in proximity with sea otter. Much is not known about Kolponomos as no complete skeleton was ever found.
Researchers recently discovered something more and different. Tseng and co-author of latest study found connection between Kolponomos, a kind of marine bear and Smilodon. They studied the jaw structure of Kolponomos and concluded that its biting style resembled that of a Smilodon. They came to an assumption that Kolponomos may have used a sabertooth-like strategy to detach mollusks from their beds.
“I started seeing a great deal of similarity between the jaws of Kolponomos and Smilodon. Both of them have a distinctive profile with a deep jaw bone that tapers off toward the back, and both have an expansion of the mastoid processes and the skull's back surface”, said Tseng.
Researchers arrived at their finding when they compared bone, teeth and shape of Kolponomos with other six carnivores, including Smilodon. This was also done to know whether marine bear ate like a sea otter. They found that despite teeth of Kolponomos resembling that of sea otter, its jaw structure was more like Smilodon.