Dinofelis
Encyclopedia
Dinofelis is a genus of sabre-toothed cats (Felinae
) belonging to the tribe Metailurini
. They were widespread in Europe
, Asia
, Africa
and North America
at least 5 million to about 1.2 million years ago (Early Pliocene
to Early Pleistocene
). Fossils very similar to Dinofelis from Lothagam
range back to the Late Miocene
, some 8 million years ago.
and a lion
, most being about the size of a jaguar
(70 cm tall and up to 120 kg), medium-sized but powerful cats that possessed two prominent sabre teeth. The front limbs were particularly robust compared to the modern cats (even the jaguar). This stout body may implicate a preference for dense or mixed habitats although it may also have been similar to the extant jaguar
with its range from forest to open range including wetland.
and Roth for body mass The first specimen was estimated to have a weight of 31.4 kg (69.2 lb). The second was estimated to have a weight of 87.8 kg (193.6 lb).
but less so than those of true saber-tooths
. Dinofelis and Nimravids
are generally referred to as "false saber-tooth" cats because of this. (However, Nimravids are not close relatives of Dinofelis.) While the lower canines are robust, the cheek teeth
are not nearly as robust as those of the lion
and other modern big cats.
along with those of the baboon
s that it possibly killed. Bones from several specimens of Dinofelis and baboon
s were found in a natural trap. Dinofelis may have entered the place to feed on trapped animals or may have simply wandered into a location and was not able to escape again. Several fossils sites from South Africa seem to show that Dinofelis may have hunted and killed Australopithecus afarensis
since they harbored fossilized remains of Dinofelis, hominids, and other large contemporary animals of the period. Also, since Dinofelis remains have been found near Paranthropus
fossil skulls in South Africa, a few of which have peculiar twin holes in their crania matching the Dinofelis upper canines's spacing almost exactly, it is possible that Dinofelis was preying on robust hominids as well.
It is thought that the gradual disappearance of the forests in which Dinofelis hunted may have contributed to its extinction at the start of the ice age
.
calves, young and old mastodon
s, Homo habilis
(an ancestor of modern humans) and other animals.
documentary, Walking with Prehistoric Beasts, as a predator of Australopithicus.
In the opening scene of 2001: A Space Odyssey
a group of primitive hominids, prior to their discovery of tools, live in fear of a large predatory cat (portrayed by an actual jaguar
) which likely would have been a Dinofelis.
Felinae
Felinae is a subfamily of the family Felidae which includes the genera and species listed below. Most are small to medium-sized cats, although the group does include some larger animals, such as the Cougar and Cheetah....
) belonging to the tribe Metailurini
Metailurini
Metailurini is an extinct tribe of large saber-toothed cats of the subfamily Felinae, that lived in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America during the Miocene to Pleistocene living from 11.610 mya—11,000 years ago, existing for approximately ....
. They were widespread in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
, Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
and North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
at least 5 million to about 1.2 million years ago (Early Pliocene
Pliocene
The Pliocene Epoch is the period in the geologic timescale that extends from 5.332 million to 2.588 million years before present. It is the second and youngest epoch of the Neogene Period in the Cenozoic Era. The Pliocene follows the Miocene Epoch and is followed by the Pleistocene Epoch...
to Early Pleistocene
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
). Fossils very similar to Dinofelis from Lothagam
Lothagam
The Lothagam is a palaeontological formation located in Kenya. It dates to the Miocene-Pliocene period.It is located near the southwestern shores of Lake Turkana, 55 kilometres from Kanapoi...
range back to the Late Miocene
Late Miocene
The Late Miocene is a sub-epoch of the Miocene Epoch made up of two stages. The Tortonian and Messinian stages comprise the Late Miocene sub-epoch....
, some 8 million years ago.
Description and ecology
In size they were between a modern leopardLeopard
The leopard , Panthera pardus, is a member of the Felidae family and the smallest of the four "big cats" in the genus Panthera, the other three being the tiger, lion, and jaguar. The leopard was once distributed across eastern and southern Asia and Africa, from Siberia to South Africa, but its...
and a lion
Lion
The lion is one of the four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...
, most being about the size of a jaguar
Jaguar
The jaguar is a big cat, a feline in the Panthera genus, and is the only Panthera species found in the Americas. The jaguar is the third-largest feline after the tiger and the lion, and the largest in the Western Hemisphere. The jaguar's present range extends from Southern United States and Mexico...
(70 cm tall and up to 120 kg), medium-sized but powerful cats that possessed two prominent sabre teeth. The front limbs were particularly robust compared to the modern cats (even the jaguar). This stout body may implicate a preference for dense or mixed habitats although it may also have been similar to the extant jaguar
Jaguar
The jaguar is a big cat, a feline in the Panthera genus, and is the only Panthera species found in the Americas. The jaguar is the third-largest feline after the tiger and the lion, and the largest in the Western Hemisphere. The jaguar's present range extends from Southern United States and Mexico...
with its range from forest to open range including wetland.
Body mass
Two specimens were examined by Serge LegendreSerge Legendre
Serge Legendre is a research scientist in the field of paleobiology with the Institute of Paleoenvironment & Paleobiosphere, University of Lyonand Editor-in-Chief of Geobios, a scientific journal published bi-monthly.-Publications:...
and Roth for body mass The first specimen was estimated to have a weight of 31.4 kg (69.2 lb). The second was estimated to have a weight of 87.8 kg (193.6 lb).
Dentition
The canine teeth of Dinofelis are longer and more flattened than those of modern catsFelidae
Felidae is the biological family of the cats; a member of this family is called a felid. Felids are the strictest carnivores of the thirteen terrestrial families in the order Carnivora, although the three families of marine mammals comprising the superfamily pinnipedia are as carnivorous as the...
but less so than those of true saber-tooths
Saber-toothed cat
Saber-toothed cat or Sabre-toothed cat refers to the extinct subfamilies of Machairodontinae , Barbourofelidae , and Nimravidae as well as two families related to marsupials that were found worldwide from the Eocene Epoch to the end of the Pleistocene Epoch ,...
. Dinofelis and Nimravids
Nimravidae
The Nimravidae, sometimes known as false saber-toothed cats, are an extinct family of mammalian carnivores belonging to the suborder Feliformia and endemic to North America, Europe, and Asia living from the Eocene through the Miocene epochs , existing for approximately .-Morphology:Although some...
are generally referred to as "false saber-tooth" cats because of this. (However, Nimravids are not close relatives of Dinofelis.) While the lower canines are robust, the cheek teeth
Carnassial
Carnassials are large teeth found in many carnivorous mammals, used for shearing flesh and bone in a scissor- or shear-like way. In the Carnivora, the carnassials are the modified last upper premolar and the first molar, but in the prehistoric creodonts, the carnassials were further back in the...
are not nearly as robust as those of the lion
Lion
The lion is one of the four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...
and other modern big cats.
Fossils
Dinofelis fossils and bones have been found in South AfricaSouth Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
along with those of the baboon
Baboon
Baboons are African and Arabian Old World monkeys belonging to the genus Papio, part of the subfamily Cercopithecinae. There are five species, which are some of the largest non-hominoid members of the primate order; only the mandrill and the drill are larger...
s that it possibly killed. Bones from several specimens of Dinofelis and baboon
Baboon
Baboons are African and Arabian Old World monkeys belonging to the genus Papio, part of the subfamily Cercopithecinae. There are five species, which are some of the largest non-hominoid members of the primate order; only the mandrill and the drill are larger...
s were found in a natural trap. Dinofelis may have entered the place to feed on trapped animals or may have simply wandered into a location and was not able to escape again. Several fossils sites from South Africa seem to show that Dinofelis may have hunted and killed Australopithecus afarensis
Australopithecus afarensis
Australopithecus afarensis is an extinct hominid that lived between 3.9 and 2.9 million years ago. A. afarensis was slenderly built, like the younger Australopithecus africanus. It is thought that A...
since they harbored fossilized remains of Dinofelis, hominids, and other large contemporary animals of the period. Also, since Dinofelis remains have been found near Paranthropus
Paranthropus
The robust australopithecines, members of the extinct hominin genus Paranthropus , were bipedal hominids that probably descended from the gracile australopithecine hominids...
fossil skulls in South Africa, a few of which have peculiar twin holes in their crania matching the Dinofelis upper canines's spacing almost exactly, it is possible that Dinofelis was preying on robust hominids as well.
It is thought that the gradual disappearance of the forests in which Dinofelis hunted may have contributed to its extinction at the start of the ice age
Ice age
An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...
.
Diet
Dinofelis hunted animals including, mammothMammoth
A mammoth is any species of the extinct genus Mammuthus. These proboscideans are members of Elephantidae, the family of elephants and mammoths, and close relatives of modern elephants. They were often equipped with long curved tusks and, in northern species, a covering of long hair...
calves, young and old mastodon
Mastodon
Mastodons were large tusked mammal species of the extinct genus Mammut which inhabited Asia, Africa, Europe, North America and Central America from the Oligocene through Pleistocene, 33.9 mya to 11,000 years ago. The American mastodon is the most recent and best known species of the group...
s, Homo habilis
Homo habilis
Homo habilis is a species of the genus Homo, which lived from approximately at the beginning of the Pleistocene period. The discovery and description of this species is credited to both Mary and Louis Leakey, who found fossils in Tanzania, East Africa, between 1962 and 1964. Homo habilis Homo...
(an ancestor of modern humans) and other animals.
Species
Other undescribed species may exist.- Dinofelis aronoki: It lived in Villafranchian and Biharian stage in KenyaKenyaKenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
and EthiopiaEthiopiaEthiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
. Recently split from D. barlowi. - Dinofelis barlowi: It lived from the late Miocene to the early Pleistocene. Geographically, it could be found in EuropeEuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, North AmericaNorth AmericaNorth America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, but mainly in AfricaAfricaAfrica is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
. It was 70 cm high and 1 m long, probably the smallest species of Dinofelis. - Dinofelis cristata: It was found in ChinaChinaChinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
. (Includes D. abeli.) - Dinofelis darti: It lived in South Africa during the Villafranchian stage.
- Dinofelis diastemata: Europe
- Dinofelis paleooncaDinofelis paleooncaDinofelis paleoonca is a species of saber-toothed cats belonging to the tribe Metailurini of the family Felidae endemic to North America during the Pliocene living from 4.9—1.8 mya, existing for approximately .-Taxonomy:...
: North America - Dinofelis petteri: East Africa
- Dinofelis piveteaui: South Africa
- Dinofelis sp. "Langebaanweg"
- Dinofelis sp. "Lothagam"
In popular culture
Dinofelis appears in the BBCBBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
documentary, Walking with Prehistoric Beasts, as a predator of Australopithicus.
In the opening scene of 2001: A Space Odyssey
2001: A Space Odyssey (film)
2001: A Space Odyssey is a 1968 epic science fiction film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, and co-written by Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, partially inspired by Clarke's short story The Sentinel...
a group of primitive hominids, prior to their discovery of tools, live in fear of a large predatory cat (portrayed by an actual jaguar
Jaguar
The jaguar is a big cat, a feline in the Panthera genus, and is the only Panthera species found in the Americas. The jaguar is the third-largest feline after the tiger and the lion, and the largest in the Western Hemisphere. The jaguar's present range extends from Southern United States and Mexico...
) which likely would have been a Dinofelis.