This Ancient 'Warg' Was Scarier Than a Tolkien Beast, Terrorized Kenya 22 Million Years Ago

This Ancient 'Warg' Was Scarier Than a Tolkien Beast, Terrorized Kenya 22 Million Years Ago
In the "Master of the Rings" arrangement, creator J.R.R. Tolkien designed the fantastical "warg," a wolf-like mammoth with sharp teeth that lived in the Misty Mountains. Little did Tolkien realize that such an animal, maybe one significantly more frightening than a warg, really existed.

This newfound however at this point terminated meat eater lived around 22 million years prior in what is currently Kenya. It was bigger than a polar bear, the biggest land-based meat eater alive today; it weighed up to 3,300 lbs. (1,500 kilograms), estimated 8 feet (2.4 meters) long from nose to rear end and stood 4 feet (1.2 m) tall at its shoulders.

The animal had extremely sharp, incredible teeth, and is considered a hypercarnivore — which means it got practically the entirety of its calories from meat. [Image Gallery: 25 Amazing Ancient Beasts]

Scientists are calling the recently discovered meat eater Simbakubwa kutokaafrika, Swahili for "enormous lion from Africa." But it was a lot bigger than a cutting edge lion, said ponder co-specialist Matt Borths, custodian of the Division of Fossil Primates at the Duke Lemur Center in North Carolina.

"Some portion of the reason we named it 'enormous lion' in Swahili is on the grounds that it would have assumed a lion-like job in its antiquated environment," Borths revealed to Live Science in an email. When it was ravenous, S. kutokaafrika didn't keep down. "Creatures that may have been on the menu were anthracotheres (hippo relatives that were lankier than their cutting edge cousins), elephant relatives and mammoth hyraxes (today, hyraxes look like cranky hares, however in the past they filled zebra and gazelle specialties in Africa)."