Professor Hesham Sallam, the senior author and a Sallam Lab team member during the discovery expedition. Credit: Professor Hesham Sallam. CC BY.
A fascinating find in Egypt’s Fayum Depression has led to a re-evaluating of a key set of prehistoric meat-eating apex predators. The discovery of a three-dimensional skull of Bastetodon, a new animal named after the Ancient Egyptian goddess Bastet, who symbolised protection, pleasure, and good health, has helped improve our understanding of hyaenodonta, an extinct group of carnivorous mammals.
The ’dream revelation’ of the finding of the 30-million-year-old fossil has led to a greater knowledge of ancient migrations of the mammals into and out of Africa, as well as helping the team behind the work, the Sallam Lab, from the American University of Cairo, reconstruct the genus of Sekhmetops, another big-cat-like carnivore.
Sekhmetops is named for the Sekhmet, the lion-headed goddess of wrath and war in ancient Egyptian mythology and a 1904 find in the western desert of Egypt placed it within a European group of hyaenodonts.
The team has demonstrated Bastetodon and Sekhmetops both belonged to a group of hyaenodonts that actually originated in Africa, as study lead author Dr Shorouq al-Ashqar explains…
ScienceVega: Can you describe the fossil landscape in North Africa before the discovery of the Bastetodon?
S a-A: The reason for studying fossils, especially terrestrial mammals, is that although the North African hyaenodonts were relatively rare, especially when compared to extensive records from Eurasia, most known taxa were either fragmental or difficult to list in the evolutionary framework.
In the Fayum Depression in the western desert of Egypt, where this dig took place, we have a complete sequence of rock, a window on a 15-million-year period, where you can see the evolutionary stages of animals from 45 million years to 30 million years back in time.
It was studying in this area when the fragment was found. The discovery of Bastetodon was like a firework going off. Suddenly we had a three-dimensional skull!
Artwork of how Bastetodon likely appeared. Credit: Ahmad Morsi. CC BY.
ScienceVega: Can you describe the dig and how the discovery was made?
S a-A: It’s quite a funny story! In 2020 we had the pandemic and it was a rough time with a lot of time spent at home. But Professor Hesham Sallam, who is the leader of our lab, had the idea that while most of us were stuck inside, he would spend some of that time out in the desert. That’s how the Sallam Lab ended up on this field expedition to the Fayum Depression. The team set up a camp on the 30-million-year-old rock, and one of my colleagues spotted teeth sticking out from the ground. There was a loud shout from Belal Salem, who is now at Ohio University: “We have a big discovery here!”
When we dug out the skull, it was upside down, but we found it was a beautifully preserved three-dimensional skull. It’s really rare to find fossils like this as palaeontologists often find fossils that are flattened, like pancakes, because they have spent an extended period of time, millions of years, under heavy rocks.
When we came back from the field, the labs were closed because of the pandemic. But Professor Hesham was so excited that he worked from home, sending us photos the whole time. Once the labs reopened, we got to work in studying and identifying the fossil.
ScienceVega: Do you have any more of the fossil or just the skull?
S a-A: It is a complete skull with almost all of the teeth, but we do not have any of the body. We might find the rest of the skeleton one day. Who knows?
ScienceVega: How important is this discovery in terms of the fossil record in Egypt?
S a-A: We as a team are dedicated to studying and observing Egyptian natural heritage in the fossil record, so it’s a big deal for us to identify Egyptian fossils. In the wider science community I think we have done very well with our discovery in terms of naming a new genus, renaming a pre-discovered one and re-evaluating the sub taxa between Europe and Africa. That is the importance of our discovery.
I always say that life on Earth is like a big puzzle and every single fossil you find is a piece of the puzzle. When you find a new piece, the vision of the history becomes clearer. This new fossil gives us new traits to better understand an extinct group of meat-eater animals called hyaenodonts. We now know much more about the dispersal and migration of these animals throughout our continent, and into and out of Africa.
The Jebel Qatrani formation, site of many palaeontological finds going back more than a century. Credit: Sallam HM, Seiffert ER, Simons EL, CC BY 2.5 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5>, via Wikimedia Commons.
ScienceVega: What do we know about Bastetodon from this skull and how does it compare to other hyaenodonts?
S a-A: This complete skull of a hyaenodont provides us with new traits. The Bastetodon had sharp knife-like teeth and very strong chewing muscles, which suggest that this animal had an unforgiveable bite force. The sharp knife-like teeth are carnassial in that they are modified for meat slicing. During chewing they pass each other and cut like scissors. The jaws of Bastetodon or hyaenodonts are like food processing machines.
The big difference between hyaenodonts and modern-day carnivores in that hyaenodonts were meat-eater animals long before dogs, wolves and big cats, and modern-day carnivore species only have one pair of carnassials, but hyaenodonts had three pairs.
The Bastetodon itself had a highly developed head, a short cat-like nose and a lot of whiskers about its mouth so it might have hunted at night. It’s also possible it could have hunted from long distances, relying on its strong scenting ability.
ScienceVega: How has the discovery of Bastetodon led to the revaluation of the Sekhmetops taxa?
S a-A: That’s a good question. The new characteristics of Bastetodon helped us to re-evaluate some fossils discovered 120 years ago, which were included in the genus Pterodon, first found in France. We found we had something different. We ran a phylogenetic analysis to see the position of Bastetodon within the family tree. We found that the African Pterodon was in a totally different branch from the European Pterodon. We were very confident that we had a different taxa from the European one, so we renamed the African taxa and restricted the genus to Europe.
That was why we renamed the fossil discovery from 120 years ago Sekhmetops after the lion-headed goddess of Ancient Egypt.
ScienceVega: Why does the discovery of Bastetodon mean you now think Sekhmetops is a different taxa?
S a-A: Firstly it’s based on morphological characters so Bastetodon and Sekhmetops are totally different from the European taxa in terms of skull anatomy and teeth anatomy. Secondly, we have the phylogenetic analysis. Sekhmetops and Bastetodon are an advanced branch when compared to the European Pterodon, which is in the ‘base’ of the family tree. Thirdly we have the stratigraphic age: Bastetodon and Sekhmetops are from the Oligocene epoch, which makes them much younger than the European Pterodon, which is from the Eocene epoch.
ScienceVega: How has the discovery helped in understanding the diversity and evolution of hyaenodonts and their global distribution?
S a-A: When we were looking at the family tree we also did an ancestral reconstruction to investigate the dispersal and the migration of these animals across continents. We found there were many dispersal events from Africa and into Africa at different times. We know the origin of the big family of Bastetodon and Sekhmetops hyaenodonts originated in Africa. The Indian taxa of hyaenodonts are from Africa as well and many taxa in Europe and Africa dispersed from Europe and into Africa and vice versa. But we need to learn more about the origin of hyaenodonts in general and that will be the focus of the next research.
Shorouq Al-Ashqar, the lead author, with the Bastetodon syrtos skull and a Bastet statue. Credit: Professor Hesham Sallam. CC BY.
ScienceVega: What does this discovery mean for you personally?
Sa-A: That’s an interesting question! The discovery of Bastetodon feels like welcoming a new baby. I’m a mother and this is like another baby! I found studying the fossil was a journey of excitement and joy. I’ve learned a lot along the way and I believe that there is still so much more to explore.
It put Bastetodon and hyaenodonts into the spotlight. Not only is it a big event for me, it’s a big event for Egypt and it reached the national media in the UK and the USA and National Geographic recognised the importance of this discovery as well.
ScienceVega: What research would you like to do next?
Sa-A: I’d like to continue investigating the relationships between hyaenodonts across continents, but I’d also love to find fossils that are linking to our own human lineage. That would be an incredible find.
One of the most powerful aspects of the Bastetodon discovery is its impact beyond science. This work is not just about uncovering ancient life; it’s about shaping the future.
As a mother of two and one of the first women in Egypt to work on vertebrate fossils, I know firsthand how difficult it is to break into this field. For a long time, palaeontology – especially fieldwork – was seen as a man’s world.
Women weren’t expected to dig fossils in the desert or lead scientific discoveries. But here I am, doing exactly that! And what’s even more meaningful is that my journey is inspiring young women who once thought this career was out of reach for them.
Through this discovery and my work, I see a shift happening. More girls are daring to dream of becoming palaeontologists, scientists, and explorers. More families are starting to accept that women, too, belong in this field. This is bigger than just one discovery – it’s about breaking barriers, challenging deep-rooted social norms, and proving that change is possible.
This is a victory in so many ways. A victory for science, for women in STEM, and for a society that is slowly redefining what is possible. And I am proud to be part of this change, thanks to the opportunities provided by the Sallam Lab – the first and only vertebrate palaeontology lab in Egypt, and perhaps the entire Middle East. It’s not just a lab; it’s a place where new possibilities are being created every day.
The link to the original paper can be found here.
