Huge wolverine once stalked west coast
A wolverine the size of a leopard sounds like a mythical creature, or perhaps something by Pixar for its next animation.
But this is reality: scientists in Cape Town have discovered that such a creature was living along our west coast about 5million years ago.
Equally as intriguing, an otter the size of a wolf is thought to have been roaming that stretch of land at the same time. The otter, classified as
Sivaonyx hendeyi, and the wolverine, classified as Plesiogulo aff Monspesulanus,
were recently discovered by scientists at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and Iziko Museums of SA.
Dr Alberto Valenciano (Iziko) and Romala Govender (UCT) were researching a collection of fossils — from the West Coast Fossil Park near Langebaanweg
— that have been housed by Iziko since they were excavated between the 1960s and 1980s.
The fossils they have described are just a few among thousands of fossils not yet described in the collection.
Both creatures are mustelids, which is a family of carnivorous mammals that includes weasels, badgers and ferrets, and the new paper (recently published in life sciences journal PeerJ) describes the teeth, forelimb and hindlimb skeletons of the species.
This is the first time in more than 40 years new specimens of mustelids from the West Coast Fossil Park near Langebaanweg have been identified.
“Our work has led to important new data about the locomotion and diet of the rather poorly known giant otter that is unique to Langebaanweg,” says Valenciano.
The area is home to an array of ancient carnivores, including 20 species of mustelids, bears, seals, jackals, hyenas, sabretooth cats, giant civets and mongoose.
Around 4-million to 2-million years ago, other species of giant otters evolved in Africa, and some of them came to be about the size of modern black bears, exceeding 200kg.
“This group of giant otters are all extinct, and their new fossils enable us to unravel their biology and evolutionary relationships,” says Valenciano.
While Valenciano and Govender found the Langebaanweg wolverine to be about the size of a leopard, wolverines today are not much bigger than a medium-sized dog.
Wolverines 5-million years ago also lived across the world, whereas today they are limited to the northern hemisphere.