New and Unusual Catlike Animal From 33 Million Years Ago Found

Paleontologists have uncovered a previously unknown catlike mammal that lived more than 30 million years ago.

Researchers from the Czech Republic's National Museum and Charles University in Prague, the country's capital, uncovered the left lower jaw of a prehistoric animal during fieldwork conducted in 2017 in the municipality of Valeč in the Karlovy Vary region.

A study of the fossils revealed that it represented an undescribed species, which the scientists have now named Fejfarictis valecensis, according to a study published in the journal Geodiversitas.

The animal is a very early member of Aeluroidea, a group of catlike carnivorous mammals found on several continents that first appeared more than 30 million years ago.

The newly described creature also represents an entirely new genus (group of species) and belongs to a lineage that was previously unrecognized in Europe. The age of the F. valecensis fossil indicates that this animal was one of the first members of Aeluroidea to appear in Europe alongside the genus called Anictis.

The fossil of F. valecensis unearthed in 2017 was found in geological layers that are roughly 33 million to 34 million years old—a period in which few related creatures have been found.

Anictis and F. valecensis appeared in Europe after a significant period of global cooling, during which there was a drop in ocean levels that facilitated the migration of these predators between Asia and Europe, according to the researchers.

F. valecensis differs from Anictis because of its distinct jaw and very primitive teeth, which were not yet adapted exclusively to hunting and a carnivorous diet.

"After the discovery of the jaw in 2017, it became clear that the research would be more time-consuming than expected, because the jaw was very unusual and we were also dealing with problems with the dating of geological layers," Boris Ekrt, a paleontologist at the National Museum and an author of the study, said in a press release.

"The research involved delicate dissection and uncovering of the other side of the teeth, which had been hidden in the rock until then," he continued. "Based on the morphology of the teeth, we subsequently distinguished that it is a so far unknown species."

Because paleontologists have found only one jawbone of the new species, knowledge about the animal is limited. But based on the size of the bone, the researchers estimated that the length of the creature, without its tail, was likely around 31 inches, Jan Wagner, another author of the study and a paleontologist at the National Museum, told Newsweek.

"The teeth are not specialized only for flesh slicing but also allow for grinding. It means that we can suppose an omnivorous diet for this carnivoran, which includes smaller vertebrates, invertebrates, eggs but also some berries, etcetera. So, its appearance, diet and behavior could be similar to some now living, less specialized civets or mongooses, which are also food generalists of similar size," Wagner said.

This specialization for a more omnivorous diet is rather unusual in early feliformians—a sub-order of the mammal group, Carnivora—according to Wagner.

Living carnivorans can be divided into two main lineages: Feliformia ("cat-like" animals including cats, hyenas, civets, mongooses and their relatives) and Caniformia ("dog-like" animals including dogs, bears, seals, racoons, weasels, badgers and their relatives). The group Aeluroidea, including the newly uncovered species, belongs to Feliformia.

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Update 2/9/24, 6:45 a.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional comments from Jan Wagner.