91Èȱ¬

A new species of giant prehistoric lion has been discovered after it was found in the wrong drawer!

Palaeontologist Matthew Borths was examining the fossil drawers in the Nairobi National Museum in Kenya, when he discovered something wasn't quite right.

He saw that there was a big cat jaw bone in the Ice Age section, which is not where it should have been.

Fellow scientist Nancy Stevens also noticed the fossil a few years earlier, and when they teamed up they realised that they'd just discovered a new species of prehistoric lion.

The team examined parts of the creature's skull, jaw and skeleton and discovered that it is one of the oldest specimens of a group of mammals called hyaenodonts.

They named the new species Simbakubwa kutokaafrika - which means 'big cat from Africa' in Swahili, a language spoken in Africa.

The Simbakubwa was thought to have been bigger than a polar bear and have teeth as big as an adult human foot!

It lived around 22 million years ago, and was one of the apex predators of its time. (Apex predators are the animals right at the top of the food chain)

The Simbakubwa became extinct around 10 million years ago, due to changing climates and tectonic plate movements.