Extinct Plant Eater with Saber Teeth Discovered

March 26, 2011-Researchers have discovered a long extinct plant eater with saber teeth. A strange and perplexing adaptation for a dog sized animal, named Tiarajudens eccentricus, that lived some 260 million years ago in what is now Brazil.

"Large saber canine [teeth] are unexpected in a herbivore," wrote the authors of the study that describes the new anomodont, a member of the therapsid group (which produced some lines that eventually led to mammals).

And these fangs weren't subtle. The saber teeth were more than half the length of the animal's 22.5-centimeter-long skull—proportionally bigger even than those of a carnivorous contemporary, the Inostrancevia.

Check out the story What was a South American herbivore doing with saber teeth?

Edited From Scientific American