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Bite force analysis of Sonitictis moralesi from Tunggur Formation, Inner Mongolia, China Project ID: 000385219 Public
6 Media · 4 Specimens · Creator: Xiaoming Wang · Managed by: Xiaoming Wang

We name a rare, hypercarnivorous, and durophagous mustelid Sonitictis moralesi, new genus and species, in honor of Jorge Morales for his contributions to carnivore paleontology. S. moralesi is only found in the Tunggur Formation of Inner Mongolia, China, in the late middle Miocene Tunggurian Land Mammal age. S. moralesi has a short and robust jaw that deepens slightly behind the m1 and possesses a shallow groove at its ventral surface. Dentally, it has robust premolars and highly hypercarnivorous m1 that has lost the metaconid and a trenchant talonid. Knowledge of this new mustelid is still poor, known by three jaw fragments, and its relationship is uncertain. However, based on its possession of a ventral groove, robust premolars, and hypercarnivorous first molar, we tentatively place it in the subfamily Mellivorinae, which includes modern Mellivora capensis (honey badger) and extinct species of Eomellivora, plus others. We conducted mandibular force profile analyses on one S. moralesi specimen and compared bite force estimates to several specimens of E. piveteaui, E. wimani and M. capensis. The results suggest that Sonitictis likely was a more capable predator and decimator of vertebrate prey than the extant Mellivora, reaching the low end of the bite force estimates for the larger and more robust Eomellivora.

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