14 DAY TRIAL // A recent study in the journal Royal Society Open Science describes a pre-dinosaur species that lived around 270 million years ago, during the middle Permian period, and that, despite feeding solely on plants, sported canines designed to butcher and kill.
The species, known to paleontologists as Tiarajudens eccentricus, was discovered back in 2011. Fossil evidence indicates that it populated parts of present-day Brazil.
Tiarajudens eccentricus was kind of, sort of like saber-toothed cats
Paleontologist Juan Carlos Cisneros and fellow researchers at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa describe Tiarajudens eccentricus as a mammalian ancestor.
As mentioned, the species was herbivorous. Even so, fossilized remains indicate that adult Tiarajudens eccentricus specimens sported enlarged, dagger-like canines not very different to the ones protruding from the mouth of saber-toothed cats.
Such scary-looking canines have been documented in many other species that roamed our planet during the Permian period. The thing is, these other species were all carnivores.
Since meat was not on its diet, researchers were quite surprised to find that the herbivorous Tiarajudens eccentricus was too perfectly equipped to deliver potentially deadly injuries.
“Saber-teeth are known to belong to the large Permian predators' gorgonopsians (also known as saber-tooth reptiles), and in the famous saber-tooth cats from the Ice Age.”
“When Tiarajudens eccentricus was discovered it had some surprises install: Despite large protruding saber-tooth canines and occluding postcanine teeth, it was an herbivore,” scientist Juan Carlos Cisneros and colleagues write in a report detailing their work.
So why did Tiarajudens eccentricus evolve to have such big canines?
The best explanation for Tiarajudens eccentricus' deadly canines is that these ancient beasts would often get into fights with one another and, therefore, badly needed suitable weapons to slaughter their opponents.
Thus, evidence indicates that, rather than rely on them to secure their meals, Tiarajudens eccentricus specimens used their impressive teeth in duels for females, territory and access to food.
