NEW DISCOVERY

@zekedarwinscience

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Why it worked

The video taps into the public's fascination with prehistoric creatures and unsolved mysteries, presenting a scientific discovery in an engaging and accessible way. The use of compelling visuals, clear explanations, and a narrative structure that builds suspense likely contributed to its shareability.

Summary

This video discusses the discovery of a new, larger species of extinct fossa, dubbed the "Cave Fossa" or "Giant Fossa," in Madagascar. It explains how the modern fossa evolved from mongoose ancestors and how this new discovery suggests a predator guild existed, with different fossa species targeting various lemurs.

Structure

1Introduction to the mystery of Madagascar's giant lemur predators.
2Introduction of the Fossa as the current apex predator.
3Explanation of the Fossa's evolutionary history from mongooses.
4Discovery of the extinct "Cave Fossa" and its size.
5Evidence of a Fossa predator guild targeting different lemurs.
6Mention of a paleoartist and their work on "Prehistoric Planet Ice Age."

On-screen text

NEW DISCOVERY WHEN HUMANS FIRST MADE IT TO THEY ARRIVED ON AN ISLAND WITH GIANT LEMURS AND WE'VE NEVER REALLY KNOWN WHAT A LEGEND CONFIRMED? APEX PREDATOR WAS HUNTING THOSE LEMURS NEW LARGE SPECIES OF CRYPTOPROCTA (CARNIVORA, EUPLERIDAE) AND NEW SPECIMENS OF C. SPELEA FROM THE HOLOCENE OF TSIMANAMPESOTSE NATIONAL PARK, SOUTHWEST MADAGASCAR MARGARET E. LEWIS, ZACHARY S. KLUKKERT, NICK SOBOTON, STEPHEN J. BURNS, J. BROOKE R. MEADOR, PHILLIP LEHMAN, PATRICK WIDMANN, YUROMAMY T. HAIRANTAHARINAO, LONDON, DAWSON, M. S. GREGORY, L. G. GREGORY BUT AS OF PAPER HAS BEEN PUBLISHED THAT SEEMS TO SOLVE THE WHAT WAS HUNTING THE GIANT LEMURS AND TO UNDERSTAND THIS ANIMAL WE FIRST NEED TODAY'S APEX PREDATOR OF MADAGASCAR THE FOSSA ANIMAL THAT IN MANY WAYS HAS EVOLVED TO CONVERGENTLY LOOK LIKE A IT HAS AN EXTREMELY LONG TAIL AND FOREARMS THAT HELP IT NAVIGATE THE TREES WHERE IT CAN HUNT LEMURS FOR A LONG TIME WHERE THE FOSSA FAMILY TREE WAS A MYSTERY BUT AS WE START STUDYING DNA IT BECAME CLEAR CARNIVORIANS ON MADAGASCAR THEY DESCEND FROM A COMMON ANCESTOR THAT ARRIVED THERE FROM AFRICA AROUND 20 OR 22 MILLION YEARS AGO THEIR CLOSEST COUSINS ARE THE MONGOOSES SO YOU CAN IMAGINE A MONGOOSE LIKE ANIMAL ARRIVING ON THIS ISLAND THAT'S DOMINATED BY LEMURS AND THEN OVER MILLIONS OF YEARS THEY EVOLVED TO HUNT THESE ANIMALS AND THEY'RE NOT ALL FOSSAS TODAY THERE'S ALSO THE MALAGASY CIVIT AND THE MALAGASY MONGOOSES THE FOSSA IS JUST THE LARGEST PREDATOR OF THAT GROUP BUT IT HASN'T ALWAYS BEEN THAT WAY IT SEEMS LIKE THE FOSSA THEY ARE THE LEFTOVERS SMALL ONES THAT SURVIVED ONCE HUMANS MADE IT THERE SCIENTISTS WERE ALREADY LARGER SPECIES OF FOSSA THAT HAD RECENTLY GONE EXTINCT SOMETIMES CALLED THE CAVE FOSSA SOMETIMES CALLED THE GIANT FOSSA NEW DISCOVERY AWKWARD THIS BONE BY THE NEW ONE THE ONLY BONE WE HAVE WAS A EVEN LARGER FOSSA THAN THE GIANT FOSSA IN THE MITOHO CAVE THEY HAD TO GO INTO THROUGH THE WATER DOWN A CHIMNEY 20 METERS AND THEY FOUND THAT FOSSIL ON A A NATURAL SHELF SAME SHELF THEY FOUND FOSSILIZED REMAINS OR SUB FOSSILS I SHOULD SAY OF THE CAVE FOSSA AND OF THE EXTANT FOSSA THE ONE THAT'S STILL AROUND TODAY SUGGESTING THESE THREE SPECIES MAY HAVE BEEN SHARING THE SAME ECOSYSTEMS ESSENTIALLY MAKING A FOSSA PREDATOR GUILD WHERE THESE DIFFERENT THEY WERE TARGETING DIFFERENT TYPES OF LEMURS THIS II WANT TO CALL IT THIS IS NONSENSE THAT THERE'S ALREADY A GIANT FOSSA BUT THIS MASSIVE FOSSA WOULD HAVE BEEN TAKING ON THE LARGEST OF THE LEMURS LEMURS THAT HAVE ALREADY BEEN FOUND WITH LIKE PREDATOR MARKS BITE IT WAS JUST A MYSTERY OF IT'S ALSO WORTH MENTIONING THAT DARREN NAISH EXCELLENT FOLLOW I'LL THE COMMENTS BUT HE MENTIONED PREHISTORIC PLANET ICE AGE THEY HAD ACCESS TO THIS DISCOVERY AND THIS FOSSA WAS ACTUALLY SUPPOSED TO BE THIS NEWLY DISCOVERED SPECIES ON THE TOPIC FOLLOWS GO CHECK OUT WELL AMAZING PALEOARTIST ALWAYS TOPICAL JUST ONE OF THE BEST PAGES OUT THERE FOR THIS

Original caption

A new discovery may solve the mystery of who was hunting Madagascar’s giant lemurs… a Fossa Predator Guild? #LearnBiologyOnTikTok #evolution #animals #cryptid #fossil

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Transcript

When humans first made it to Madagascar, they arrived on an island with giant lemurs and we've never really known what apex predator was hunting those lemurs. But as of this week, a paper has been published that seems to solve the mystery. What was hunting the giant lemurs? And to understand this animal, we first need to talk about today's apex predator of Madagascar, the Fossa. This is an animal that in many ways has evolved to convergently look like a cat. It has an extremely long tail and forearms that help it navigate the trees where it can hunt lemurs. For a long time, where the Fossa family tree was a mystery, but as we start studying DNA, it became clear carnivorians on Madagascar, they descend from a common ancestor that arrived there from Africa around 20 or 22 million years ago. Their closest cousins are the mongooses. So you can imagine a mongoose-like animal arriving on this island that's dominated by lemurs, and then over millions of years, they evolved to hunt these animals. And they're not all fossas today. There's also the Malagasy civet and the Malagasy mongooses. The Fossa is just the largest predator of that group. But it hasn't always been that way. It seems like the Fossa, they are the leftovers, small ones that survived once humans made it there. Scientists were already aware of larger species of Fossa that had recently gone extinct, sometimes called the Cave Fossa, sometimes called the Giant Fossa. This new discovery, awkward, because I don't know what to call this animal. This should be the Giant Fossa, as it's about twice the size of the "Giant Fossa." This bone, by the way, the new one, the only bone we have that shows there was an even larger Fossa than the Giant Fossa. It was found in the Mitoho cave, which sits right here on the coast of Madagascar. They had to go into the cave through the water, down a chimney 20 meters, and they found that fossil on a natural shelf, obviously. But on that same shelf, they found fossilized remains or sub-fossils, I should say, of the Cave Fossa and of the extant Fossa, the one that's still around today, suggesting these three species may have been sharing the same ecosystems. Essentially making a Fossa predator guild where these different they were targeting different types of lemurs. This II wanna call it, this is nonsense that there's already a giant Fossa. But this massive Fossa would have been taking on the largest of the lemurs. Lemurs that have already been found with like predator marks, bite, it was just a mystery of. It's also worth mentioning that Darren Naish, excellent follow. I'll tag him in the comments. But he mentioned that they were working on Prehistoric Planet Ice Age, they had access to this discovery. And this Fossa was actually supposed to be this newly discovered species. On the topic follows. Go check out well, amazing paleoartist, always topical, just one of the best pages out there for this.