Explore this animal in Size of Extinct Animals ↗
471 / Cenozoic
Simbakubwa
Simbakubwa kutokaafrika
Huge cutting teeth came from a hyaenodont predator heavier than a modern lion.
View original image · 1600 × 1067- Time range
- About 23 million years ago
- Final stage
- Early Miocene
- Geographic range
- Tropical woodland and river valley · Kenya
01 / DEFINITION & ECOLOGY
What was Simbakubwa?
Simbakubwa (Simbakubwa kutokaafrika) was an extinct organism known from About 23 million years ago, with a range in Tropical woodland and river valley · Kenya.
Life and ecology
It ambushed early proboscideans and other large ungulates near forest edges.
02 / DISAPPEARANCE
Why did Simbakubwa disappear?
Environmental change in Africa and turnover among carnivores are possible context, but they do not show why the genus disappeared.
03 / EVIDENCE
How do scientists know about Simbakubwa?
Jaws, teeth and partial bones constrain carnivory while body mass remains a wide estimate.
04 / SOURCES & FURTHER READING
Check the source record
Use the scientific name to compare taxonomy, occurrence records and the fossil record. Database coverage and classifications may differ.
05 / REVISION HISTORY
How has this record changed?
- Rewrote an extinction cause that presented environmental or faunal turnover as established; it is now given as context the record does not prove.
- Verified authoritative entity sources and added three responsive reconstruction sizes.
- Initial bilingual species record published.
06 / CORRECTIONS & ADDITIONS