Miomachairodus Temporal range:
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Carnivora |
Suborder: | Feliformia |
Family: | Felidae |
Subfamily: | † Machairodontinae |
Genus: | †
Miomachairodus Schmidt-Kittler, 1976 |
Type species | |
Miomachairodus pseudailuroides Schmidt-Kittler, 1976
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Miomachairodus is an extinct genus of large machairodontine (saber-toothed cat) containing only a single species, Miomachairodus pseudailuroides. It is known from Miocene-age fossils in China and Turkey and persisted until the Late Miocene (early Vallesian). [1] Fossils of this machairodont have been found in the Vallesian-age Bahe Formation in Shaanxi, China, and Yeni Eskihisar in Anatolia. This Turkish site is of Miocene age and is well known for its pollen studies. [2]
The genus was first named by paleontologist Norbert Schmidt-Kittler in 1976 based on the holotype, a partial skull from Akçaköy, Eşme District, Turkey, and a second specimen, a lower jaw from Yeni Eskihisar. The generic name Miomachairodus is a combination of Mio, referring to the Miocene when it lived, and Machairodus; the specific name pseudailuroides means "like Pseudaelurus". [3]
In 2022, material from the Guanigou fauna in the Linxia Basin was described as Miomachairodus sp., and the authors suggested that it represented a new species of Miomachairodus. The fossil, a partial maxilla from the early Late Miocene (early Bahean), represented the oldest known machairodontine in Asia. They refrained from definitively naming the species because it lacked the fourth premolar. [4] The fossil material had previously been assigned to Machairodus palanderi in 2013. [5]
The Miomachairodus sp. from the Linxia Basin is known only from a single fossil (HMV2039), a partial maxilla with the first, second, and third incisors, the canine, and the third premolar present, as well as the alveolus of the second premolar and a broken fourth premolar. The incisors are small and the canine tooth has "distinct but small" serrations. It was distinguished from M. pseudailuroides by having a shorter diastema between the canine and third premolar, and in the differing morphology of the third premolar. The describing paper estimated it was a large carnivoran that weighed more than 100 kilograms (220 lb). [4]
A 2018 phylogenetic analysis recovered Miomachairodus pseudailuroides as basal to most of the rest of Machairodontinae. [6]
Machairodontinae |
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