Research results, Scientific Publications

An international team of researchers, including Dr. Eudald Mujal, palaeontologist at the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart, Germany, has described a fossil animal that lived on what is now Mallorca about 270-280 million years ago and belonged to a group of sabre-toothed animals. The fossil find is remarkable not only because of the quantity of remains found, but also because it is the oldest known gorgonopsian on Earth, which belongs to therapsids, the group ancestor of mammals. The research was published in the journal Nature Communications.

The extinct gorgonopsians were warm-blooded like today's mammals, but unlike them, they laid eggs. These predators were also among the first animals to develop sabre teeth. They resembled dogs, but without ears and fur, and were often the top predators in their ecosystems. Gorgonopsians lived during the Permian period, mainly found in rocks between 270 and 250 million years old, and are part of the evolutionary lineage of therapsids that would later give rise to the first mammals.

"We have never found a predator from this period in Mallorca. This is probably the oldest gorgonopsian in the world to date. The 280- to 270-million-year-old fossils add crucial information to understand the ecosystem at that time. It is a small- to medium-sized animal, around one metre long. This sabre-toothed dog-like animal was a dangerous predator, probably at the top of the food chain," says Dr. Eudald Mujal.

The fact that the animal was found in the Balearic Islands is unusual. The known remains of gorgonopsians come from higher latitudes, such as Russia or South Africa. 280 to 270 million years ago, the Balearic Islands were very close to the equator on the supercontinent of Pangaea. The age of the fossils also surprised the researchers, since other finds of this group elsewhere are notably younger. During the excavations, numerous bone remains were found from a site in the municipality of Banyalbufar on Mallorca. Among them were skull fragments, vertebrae, ribs and a very well-preserved femur.

During the excavation, an almost complete leg was found, which allowed the researchers to study the animal's locomotion. Unlike reptiles, which originally moved with their legs spread apart, gorgonopsians’ legs were more vertically aligned, moving in a way that is found between reptiles and mammals. This system is more efficient for walking and especially running. The discovery of a sabre-like tooth confirmed to researchers that this was a carnivorous animal, a characteristic shared by all gorgonopsians worldwide.

During the Permian period, Mallorca was not an island, but part of the supercontinent Pangaea. It was located at an equatorial latitude where countries like Congo and Guinea are located today. The climate was monsoon-like, with alternating wet and dry seasons. The site where the fossils were found has been identified as a floodplain with temporary pools where gorgonopsians and other animals came to drink. Despite their small size, the Balearic Islands are exceptionally rich in fossils. "Our find in Mallorca shows that we can expect more Permian finds in Western Europe and North Africa that will broaden our understanding of the ecosystem at that time," says palaeontologist Dr. Eudald Mujal.

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Wissenschaftlicher Ansprechpartner:
Dr. Eudald Mujal
State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart, Germany
Phone. +49/(0)711/89 36/170
E-mail: eudald.mujalgrane@smns-bw.de

Dr. Eudald Mujal is available for further information and interviews.

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Originalpublikation:
Matamales-Andreu, R., Kammerer, C. F., Angielczyk, K. D., Simões, T. R., Mujal, E., Galobart, À., & Fortuny, J. (2024). Early–middle Permian Mediterranean gorgonopsian suggests an equatorial origin of therapsids. Nature Communications.
Date of publication: 17.12.2024
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-54425-5

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