Prehistoric fossil of a bear-dog discovered in France.

A group of research scientists has discovered a fossilized lower jaw of an enormous creature that once lived on earth. Identified as Tartarocyon cazanavei, it existed between 12.8 and 12 million years ago and used to roam in France.

Also predominantly known as the bear-dog, the fossil was discovered from the marine depositions of  Sallepisse located in the Pyrenees-Atlantiques department in France.

As informed by Discover Magazine, the scientists believe that the fossilized body part of the giant animal belongs to a new species termed amphicyonid. A very detailed description of the discovery has been published in PeerJ.

It has been outlined in the publication by paleontologist Bastien Mennecart and accompanying co-authors that the team has discovered that the jawbone possesses a unique premolar in the lower jaw which suggest that the body part belonged to a genus of a predatory species never documented before. The prehistoric animal is speculated to be approximately 200 kg in weight from its fossil. They used to walk on their toes and later evolved to walk on the soles of their feet. Their size range varied from 5kg to 773kg.

The team of research scientists has named the species after a character from Basque mythology named Tartaro, described as a one-eyed powerful giant.  The mythical legend of Tartaro is popular in Bearn, where the fossilized part was discovered.

During the early Miocene period, a variety of amphicyonid species used to exist and roam around in the regions of Europe 12 million years ago. This species went extinct around 705 million years ago from the face of the earth.

A vast number of studies by various researchers have highlighted that amphicyonids exhibited the typical characteristics of mesocarnivorous, hyper carnivorous, bone-crushing, and obligate-omnivorous diets.

The genus of amphicyon was named after Edouard Lartet in the year of 1836. It has the meaning that describes  ‘ambiguous dog’ and then the name evolved to ‘bear-dog’.

Fossils belonging to this species have been discovered in the region of Nebraska region in North America and in Spain and France in Europe.