Pakistan Fossils Reveal 3 Hyaenodont Species, Including New Metapterodon anari

2 articles · Updated · Sci.News · May 29

Miocene sediments in Pakistan yielded fossils from three hyaenodonts, including the newly named Metapterodon anari, in a study covering animals that lived about 14 million to 9.5 million years ago.
Metapterodon anari, estimated at about 15 kg, is the first confirmed record of its genus outside Africa and may rank among the youngest published hyaenodont fossils.
Other finds include a Hyaenodon specimen—the first from this region and the genus's youngest known occurrence—and juvenile teeth from a giant species tentatively assigned to Megistotherium or Hyainailouros, which may have reached 500 kg.
The fossils from the Chinji and Nagri formations in the Siwaliks suggest Miocene links between Africa, Europe and South Asia, and capture a late stage when hypercarnivorous hyaenodonts were competing with rising carnivorans.

How did a hippo-sized predator from Africa end up in the mountains of ancient Pakistan?

Why did the ancestors of modern dogs and cats outcompete the giant hypercarnivores that once ruled?

What does this fossil discovery reveal about life during the great global cooling of the Miocene?