Fossil remains in the The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Illinois have been re-examined with new tech, and found to be 'bear-dogs'.
Bear dogs, scientifically known as amphicyonids, get their common name from their general resemblance to modern-day bears and dogs, especially in their body shape and posture, but they are, in fact, only distantly related to these lineages.
The specimens had been collected some decades earlier in Texas, but new 3D scanning made an identification possible.
Earlier analyses of these fossils only considered their external features, and the remains were so fragmentary that paleontologists could only say the creatures were carnivores of some sort. But Tomiya and Tseng’s new study used x-rays to generate detailed 3D scans of the fossils’ internal features. Those scans revealed a distinct pattern of blood vessel channels in the base of the skull that identified the creatures as amphicyonids, making them among the oldest known members of the lineage,
Entire article available at http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/10/bear-dogs-once-lived-southern-texas
The search for the elusive Man-Bear-Pig still continues.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by aristarchus on Thursday October 13 2016, @04:50AM
Now, we will have admit that any scientific submissions to SoylentNews are a waste of time, even if they mention Southern Texas. OK, Lesson Learned. Would not submit again. One star. (Weeps for the SoylentNews that might have been!!!)
(Score: 3, Informative) by darnkitten on Friday October 14 2016, @02:51AM
Or maybe submissions on a Wednesday. I found it interesting, but didn't see it 'til Thursday night--anything from Tuesday afternoon to late Thursday is generally lost on me, as the week doesn't slow down till then., and by that time, it's mostly pointless to comment.