An international team of scientists led by Bastien Mencar from the Basel Museum of Natural History in Switzerland discovered a new species of fossil predators from the family Amphicionidae – the so-called bear dog. Paleontologists studied the jawbone. Scientists were able to classify the remains as belonging to a previously unknown species because of the fossil animal’s teeth.

“We hypothesize that this specimen represents a new genus, which may or may not be confirmed by future finds,” says a scientific article published in the journal PeerJ by the study authors. Scientists named the new species “tartarotsion” after Tartaro, the mighty one-eyed giant of Basque mythology. The discovery of the jaw of the Tartarocene is of great scientific importance and will help to study the history of European bears.