''Ekorus ekakeran'' is a large, extinct

mustelid The Mustelidae (; from Latin ''mustela'', weasel) are a family of carnivorous mammals, including weasels, badgers, otters, ferrets, martens, minks and wolverines, among others. Mustelids () are a diverse group and form the largest family ...

mammal. Fossils, including largely complete skeletons, are known from the late

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

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Description

''Ekorus'' reached almost , comparably to a

wolf The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly un ...

and much bigger than the modern

honey badger The honey badger (''Mellivora capensis''), also known as the ratel ( or ), is a mammal widely distributed in Africa, Southwest Asia, and the Indian subcontinent. Because of its wide range and occurrence in a variety of habitats, it is liste ...

('' Mellivora capensis''). Standing tall at the shoulders, its build was not similar to that of modern mustelids. Small, modern-day weasels have short legs and can only achieve short bursts of speed. Living large mustelids are either aquatic predators (the otters, Lutrinae), or terrestrial animals with a crouching stance and heavy limbs with adaptations for digging (the

wolverine The wolverine (), (''Gulo gulo''; ''Gulo'' is Latin for " glutton"), also referred to as the glutton, carcajou, or quickhatch (from East Cree, ''kwiihkwahaacheew''), is the largest land-dwelling species of the family Mustelidae. It is a muscul ...

, and various groups called

badger Badgers are short-legged omnivores in the family Mustelidae (which also includes the otters, wolverines, martens, minks, polecats, weasels, and ferrets). Badgers are a polyphyletic rather than a natural taxonomic grouping, being united by ...

s). ''Ekorus'' is a representative of an extinct ecological type of mustelid – large stalking and running mammals comparable to dogs, cats, hyenas, and amphicyonids. The legs of ''Ekorus'' are built like those of leopards. The face is short, with a felid-like tooth pattern; Ekorus was a

hypercarnivore A hypercarnivore is an animal which has a diet that is more than 70% meat, either via active predation or by scavenging. The remaining non-meat diet may consist of non-animal foods such as fungi, fruits or other plant material. Some extant exam ...

. Analysis of the elbow indicates that it was a strong runner, like modern hyenas and dogs, and did not grapple with its paws, as bears and raccoons do. The legs are long; the feet are short and stout. Fossils of giant Miocene mustelids with similar morphology, reconstructed as hypercarnivores or carnivore-scavengers, have also been discovered in North America,

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

, and

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

, as well as other parts of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

Paleoecology

Apparently before the African savannas evolved, the giant mustelid ''Ekorus'' stalked its prey, such as the three-toed horse ''

Eurygnathohippus ''Eurygnathohippus'' is an extinct genus of hipparionine horse. The majority of known fossils of members of this genus were discovered in Africa, where members of this genus lived during the late Miocene to Pleistocene interval. Fossils of ''Eu ...

'' and the large pig '' Nyanzachoerus'', in forests and woodlands. In the early Cenozoic, Africa was isolated from Eurasia, where modern African groups such as cats and giraffes first evolved. African predators and prey developed along their own lines to hunt in closed environments. ''Ekorus'' had the upright stance typical of active hunters, lacked digging adaptations, and was leopard-sized, with leopard-like body proportions. Since leopards are ambush hunters in forests and woodlands, ''Ekorus'' may have filled a parallel role in the Miocene forests of Africa. Other research has suggested the genus was cursorial, chasing down prey more like a modern

or spotted hyena. In general, Miocene predators show larger body sizes with anatomies between the modern "dog-like" pursuit running and "cat-like" stalk-pounce-and-grapple strategies. This was suggested to be the result of the great abundance of prey species in Miocene forests, which allowed predators to survive without having to specialize as either fast runners or grapplers.

Extinction

Felids Felidae () is the family of mammals in the order Carnivora colloquially referred to as cats, and constitutes a clade. A member of this family is also called a felid (). The term "cat" refers both to felids in general and specifically to the dom ...

are first recorded on the continent in the early Miocene, in north Africa. Tectonic changes starting about 35 million years ago led to the formation of the

Great Rift Valley The Great Rift Valley is a series of contiguous geographic trenches, approximately in total length, that runs from Lebanon in Asia to Mozambique in Southeast Africa. While the name continues in some usages, it is rarely used in geology as it ...

, and the rise of highlands that cause rain shadows in the surrounding region. Before the rift opened,

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was more forested. Grasslands began to spread across Africa in the mid-Miocene, slowly replacing closed forest environments with open savannas. Any or all of these factors may have led to the replacement of ''Ekorus'' and other large mustelid hunters by modern felids, hyaenids, and canids.

References

{{taxonbar, from=Q2258308 Prehistoric mustelids Miocene mammals of Africa Miocene carnivorans Fossil taxa described in 2003 Prehistoric carnivoran genera Prehistoric monotypic mammal genera