A nearly complete skull fossil found in Egypt has revealed a new species of Hyaenodonta, an apex carnivore that mysteriously went extinct about 25 million years ago.

Scientists in Egypt discovered a not-before-known apex predator that lived 30 million years ago, potentially helping to solve an extinction mystery.

Shorouq Al-Ashqar, the lead study author, with the Bastetodon syrtos skull and a Bastet statue. Credit: Professor Hesham Sallam Once upon a time, some 30 million years ago, what is now Egypt’s Western ...

A 30-million-year-old skull from Fayum, Egypt, is thought to come from the apex predator of the times, which would have been the scourge of early hippos and elephants, snacking on our own ...

Bastetodon likely hunted some of the smaller creatures and scavenged on the carcasses of the larger ones. Precisely how the hyper-carnivorous hyaenodonts hunted, though, is still a mystery.

The Bastetodon skull's finding has also helped the researchers shine fresh light on a related group of lion-sized hyaenodonts first unearthed in Fayum more than 120 years ago.

Meet the Bastetodon, a newly discovered species of apex predator that roamed the lush forests of ancient Egypt some 30 million years ago.