Biology:Sekhmetops
Sekhmetops (meaning "Sekhmet face") is an extinct genus of carnivorous hyaenodont mammals from the Early Oligocene Jebel Qatrani Formation of Egypt. The genus contains two species, S. africanus and S. phiomensis, both of which were originally assigned to the genus Pterodon.[1]
Discovery and naming
In 1903, British paleontologist Charles W. Andrews participated in an expedition to Fayûm, Egypt, during which several new vertebrate fossils were collected. Later that year, he published a brief note describing these specimens. He classified one of these, a partial right jaw bone (specimen NHMUK M8503), as a new species of the genus Pterodon, noting how its large size distinguished it from the type species of this genus. The specific name, africanus, is a Latin adjective meaning "from Africa".[2] In a 1906 book, Andrews described and figured the specimen in more depth. He also provisionally referred a left humerus and right femur to this species.[3][4]
In 1909, American paleontologist Henry Fairfield Osborn described another species of Pterodon, P. phiomensis, based on the holotype (AMNH 13253), a nearly complete left lower jaw. He also referred a second comparable lower jaw, AMNH 13254. Osborn described this species as about two-thirds the size of P. africanus, with a more slender jaw morphology.[5][4] The specific name, phiomensis, is derived from the phiom—the Greek word for Fayûm, meaning "lake"—referencing the type locality.[6]
In 2025, Al-Ashqar et al. revised the record of African species assigned to Pterodon, a historic wastebasket taxon. As in previous analyses, they observed that the species referred to this genus form a polyphyletic assemblage.[7][8] As such, they established a new genus, Sekhmetops, for "P." africanus and "P." phiomensis. The generic name combines a reference to Sekhmet—a lion-headed goddess from Ancient Egyptian mythology associated with pestilence and war—with the Greek suffix "-ops", meaning "face". The authors' intended translation is "having the face of the lion-headed goddess".[1]
Description
Sekhmetops is a medium-sized hyaenodont, with S. africanus around the size of a hyena and S. phiomensis around the size of a lion.[1] In their 2019 description of Simbakubwa, Borths and colleagues estimated the body mass of S. phiomensis (then referred to "P." phiomensis) at approximately 158–200 kg (348–441 lb).[8]
Classification
Using an expanded matrix from previous phylogenetic analyses,[9] Al-Ashqar et al. recovered "P." africanus and "P." phiomensis as sister taxa within the hyaenodontan subfamily Hyainailourinae. Their results are displayed in the cladogram below:[1]
| Hyainailourinae |
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References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Al-Ashqar, Shorouq F.; Borths, Matthew; El-Desouky, Heba; Heritage, Steven; Abed, Mohamed; Seiffert, Erik R.; El-Sayed, Sanaa; Sallam, Hesham M. (2025-02-16). "Cranial anatomy of the hypercarnivore Bastetodon syrtos gen. nov. (Hyaenodonta, Hyainailourinae) and a reevaluation of Pterodon in Africa" (in en). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 44 (3): e2442472. doi:10.1080/02724634.2024.2442472. ISSN 0272-4634.
- ↑ Andrews, C. W. (1903). "I.— Notes on an Expedition to the Fayûm, Egypt, with Descriptions of Some New Mammals" (in en). Geological Magazine 10 (8): 337–343. doi:10.1017/S0016756800115122. ISSN 0016-7568. Bibcode: 1903GeoM...10..337A.
- ↑ Andrews, Charles William (1906) (in en). A descriptive catalogue of the Tertiary Vertebrata of the Fayûm, Egypt. London: British Museum of Natural History. pp. 220–225. https://ia601404.us.archive.org/22/items/descriptivecatal00andr/descriptivecatal00andr.pdf.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Holroyd, Patricia A. (1999-08-20). "New Pterodontinae (Creodonta: Hyaenodontidae) from the late Eocene-early Oligocene Jebel Qatrani Formation, Fayum Province, Egypt". PaleoBios 19 (2): 1–18. https://docubase.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/pl_dochome?query_src=pl_search&format=pdf&collection=PaleoBios_Archive_Public&id=141&show_doc=yes.
- ↑ Osborn, Henry F. (1909). "New carnivorous mammals from the Fayûm Oligocene, Egypt". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 26 (28): 415–424. http://hdl.handle.net/2246/1452.
- ↑ Morgan, Vincent L.; Lucas, Spencer G. (2002). "Notes from Diary-Fayum Trip, 1907". New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 22: 1–148. ISSN 1524-4156. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281034057.
- ↑ Zack, Shawn P. (2019). "The first North American Propterodon (Hyaenodonta: Hyaenodontidae), a new species from the late Uintan of Utah". PeerJ 7. doi:10.7717/peerj.8136. PMID 31772846.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Borths, Matthew R.; Stevens, Nancy J. (2019-01-02). "Simbakubwa kutokaafrika, gen. et sp. nov. (Hyainailourinae, Hyaenodonta, 'Creodonta,' Mammalia), a gigantic carnivore from the earliest Miocene of Kenya" (in en). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 39 (1). doi:10.1080/02724634.2019.1570222. ISSN 0272-4634. Bibcode: 2019JVPal..39E0222B.
- ↑ Solé, Floréal; Morlo, Michael; Schaal, Tristan; Lehmann, Thomas (2021). "New hyaenodonts (Mammalia) from the late Ypresian locality of Prémontré (France) support a radiation of the hyaenodonts in Europe already at the end of the early Eocene". Geobios 66–67: 119–141. doi:10.1016/j.geobios.2021.02.004. Bibcode: 2021Geobi..66..119S.
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