Bear dog: fossil of new species of predator found in Europe

Jawbone found in south-western France is a priceless piece of Earth history, palaeontologists say

The 'bear dog' would have eaten carrion such as dolphin, as well as hunting large prey. Photo: Denny Navarra

A new species of predator that lived between 7.5 million and 36 million years ago has been found in western Europe.

The "bear dog" was the size of a lion and lived in mountainous regions that are now the Pyrenees.

A jawbone was found in marine deposits between 12 million and 12.8 million years old that were examined in the small community of Sallespisse in the Pyrenees-Atlantiques region of south-western France.

An international team of palaeontologists, led by Dr Bastien Mennecart from the Natural History Museum Basel, concluded that the bone belonged to a group of carnivores known colloquially as “bear dogs”, which weighed about 320 kilograms and could crush bones with their teeth.

Dr Mennecart told The National the find was "a priceless peace of Earth history" owing to the rare nature of fossil finds in the region.

The lower jawbone of the bear dog, and its surviving molars, has given clues to what it would eat.

"Climate changes associated to competition with newcomers may have been at the origin of their extinction," he said.

He said it was likely that the bear dogs would have been opportunistic, solitary animals similar to bears today, rather than running in packs like dogs. They would have hunted large prey, he said.

They would have also patrolled the shoreline looking for carrion such as dolphin.

The scientific name for the new species is Tartarocyon. This name comes from Tartaro, a powerful, one-eyed giant from Basque mythology. The legend of Tartaro is also known in Bearn, the region where the lower jawbone was found.

A report on the discovery was published in the journal PeerJ.

The scientists behind the report, Floreal Sole, Jean-Francois Lesport and Antoine Heitz, said that discoveries of "fossilised terrestrial vertebrates that lived on the northern edge of the Pyrenees 13 million to 11 million years ago are very rare".

"The discovery and description of the lower jaw is even more significant. That is because it offers the opportunity to explore the development of European 'bear dogs' against the background of known environmental events at this time," they said.