Metailurini

Metailurini is an extinct taxonomic tribe of large saber-toothed cats that lived in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America from the Miocene to the Pleistocene.[2]

Metailurini
Temporal range: Late Miocene–Middle Pleistocene
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Suborder: Feliformia
Family: Felidae
Subfamily: †Machairodontinae
Tribe: †Metailurini
Turner & Antón, 1997
Genera

The best known Metalurini genera are Dinofelis and Metailurus. Metailurini had canines longer than neofelids, but smaller than true saber toothed cats. The teeth were also are more conical than flat, so called "scimitar-toothed", having broad and mildly elongated upper canines. Like most extinct cats, the majority of species in Metailurini are known primarily from fragments. However, the systematic position and taxonomy of these creatures is now accepted as being true members of Felidae and descended from Proailurus and Pseudaelurus.[3] Within Felidae, they had been traditionally considered to belong in Machairodontinae, albeit some have in the past proposed a relationship to Pantherinae,[4][5] all phylogenetic analyses support the former classification but the monophyly of the taxon itself might not be supported.[5][6][7]

Classification
Tribe †Metailurini
GenusSpeciesImage
†Adelphailurus Hibbard, 1934
  • †A. kansensis
†Dinofelis Zdansky, 1924
  • †D. aronoki
  • †D. barlowi
  • †D. cristata
  • †D. darti
  • †D. diastemata
  • †D. paleoonca
  • †D. petteri
  • †D. piveteaui
†Metailurus Zdansky, 1924
  • †M. boodon
  • †M. major
  • †M. mongoliensis
  • †M. ultimus
†Stenailurus
  • †S. teilhardi
†Yoshi[8] Spassov and Geraads, 2014
  • †Y. garevskii
  • †Y. minor

Phylogeny

The phylogenetic relationships of Metailurini are shown in the following cladogram:[9][10][11][12][13]

 †Metailurini 
 †Yoshi[14] 
 

†Yoshi garevskii

 
 

†Yoshi minor

 
 
 †Adelphailurus 

†Adelphailurus kansensis

 
 †Stenailurus 

†Stenailurus teilhardi (7 mya; Europe)

 
 
 †Metailurus 
 

†Metailurus boodon

 
 

†Metailurus major

 
 

†Metailurus mongoliensis

 
 

†Metailurus ultimus

 
 
 †Dinofelis 
 

†Dinofelis aronoki

 
 

†Dinofelis barlowi

 
 

†Dinofelis cristata

 
 

†Dinofelis darti

 
 

†Dinofelis diastemata

 
 

†Dinofelis piveteaui

 
 
 

†Dinofelis paleoonca

 
 

†Dinofelis petteri

 
 
 
 
 

References
  1. Spassov, Nikolai; Geraads, Denis (2015). "A New Felid from the Late Miocene of the Balkans and the Contents of the Genus Metailurus Zdansky, 1924 (Carnivora, Felidae)". Journal of Mammalian Evolution. 22: 45–56. doi:10.1007/s10914-014-9266-5.
  2. PaleoBiology Database: Metailurini, basic info
  3. Wesley-Hunt, Gina D.; Flynn, John J. (2005). "Phylogeny of the Carnivora: basal relationships among the Carnivoramorphans, and assessment of the position of ‘Miacoidea’ relative to Carnivora". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 3: 1–28. doi:10.1017/S1477201904001518
  4. Lars W. van den Hoek Ostende, Michael Morlo, Doris Nagel: Fossils explained 52 Majestic killers: the sabre-toothed cats. Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Geology Today, Vol. 22, No. 4, July–August 2006 online
  5. Christiansen, Per (2013). "Phylogeny of the sabertoothed felids (Carnivora: Felidae: Machairodontinae)". Cladistics. 29 (5): 543–559. doi:10.1111/cla.12008.
  6. Salesa, M.; et al. (2012). "A rich community of Felidae (Mammalia, Carnivora) from the late Miocene (Turolian, MN 13) site of Las Casiones (Villalba Baja, Teruel, Spain)". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 32 (3): 658–676. doi:10.1080/02724634.2012.649816.
  7. Meloro, C. & Slater, G.J. (2012). "Covariation in the skull modules of cats: the challenge of growing saber-like canines". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 32 (3): 677–685. doi:10.1080/02724634.2012.649328.
  8. Spassov, Nikolai; Geraads, Denis (2014). "A New Felid from the Late Miocene of the Balkans and the Contents of the Genus Metailurus Zdansky, 1924 (Carnivora, Felidae)". Journal of Mammalian Evolution. 22: 45–56. doi:10.1007/s10914-014-9266-5.
  9. "Paleobiology Database". Archived from the original on 2012-03-25. Retrieved 2011-06-16.
  10. Turner, Alan (1990). "The evolution of the guild of larger terrestrial carnivores during the Plio-Pleistocene in Africa". Geobios. 23 (3): 349–368. doi:10.1016/0016-6995(90)80006-2.
  11. Martin, L. D.; Babiarz, J. P.; Naples, V. L.; Hearst, J. (2000). "Three Ways To Be a Saber-Toothed Cat". Naturwissenschaften. 87 (1): 41–44. Bibcode:2000NW.....87...41M. doi:10.1007/s001140050007. PMID 10663132.
  12. Turner, Alan (1997). The Big Cats and their fossil relatives. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 60. ISBN 978-0-231-10228-5.
  13. Wallace, S. C.; Hulbert, R. C. (2013). Larson, Greger (ed.). "A New Machairodont from the Palmetto Fauna (Early Pliocene) of Florida, with Comments on the Origin of the Smilodontini (Mammalia, Carnivora, Felidae)". PLOS One. 8 (3): e56173. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0056173. PMC 3596359. PMID 23516394.
  14. Spassov, Nikolai; Geraads, Denis (2015). "A New Felid from the Late Miocene of the Balkans and the Contents of the Genus Metailurus Zdansky, 1924 (Carnivora, Felidae)". Journal of Mammalian Evolution. 22: 45–56. doi:10.1007/s10914-014-9266-5.


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