Prosansanosmilus is an extinct genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of mammal

Mammal

Mammals are members of a class of air-breathing vertebrate animals characterised by the possession of endothermy, hair, three middle ear bones, and mammary glands functional in mothers with young...

ian carnivores

Carnivora

The diverse order Carnivora |Latin]] carō "flesh", + vorāre "to devour") includes over 260 species of placental mammals. Its members are formally referred to as carnivorans, while the word "carnivore" can refer to any meat-eating animal...

 of the suborder Feliformia

Feliformia

The Feliformia are a suborder within the order Carnivora and includes cats , hyenas, mongooses, civets and related taxa. The other suborder of Carnivora is Caniformia...

, family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

 Barbourofelidae

Barbourofelidae

Barbourofelidae is an extinct family of mammalian carnivores of the suborder Feliformia, which lived in North America, Eurasia and Africa during the Miocene epoch , existing for approximately .- Taxonomy :...

, which lived 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...

 during the Miocene

Miocene

The Miocene is a geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about . The Miocene was named by Sir Charles Lyell. Its name comes from the Greek words and and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern sea invertebrates than the Pliocene. The Miocene follows the Oligocene...

 epoch (16.9—16.0 mya), existing for approximately .

Taxonomy

Prosansanosmilus was named by Heizmann et al. (1980). Its type is Prosansanosmilus peregrinus. It was assigned to Nimravinae by Heizmann et al. (1980); to Felidae by Carroll (1988); to Barbourofelinae by Bryant (1991); and to Barbourofelidae by Morlo et al. (2004) and Morlo (2006).

A new species, P. eggeri from the Middle Eocene locality of Sandelzhausen, Germany, was described in 2004. It differed from other European barbourofelids in having a more plesiomorphic ("ancestral") morphology with less developed sabretoth adaptations and being smaller. The species is, however, stratigraphically younger than P. peregrinus, and probably part of the African faunal immigration into Europe during the Middle Eocene.

Morphology

Like all barbourofelids, Prosansanosmilus was very muscular, short legged, and probably walked plantigrade (flat-footed). There are only two species of Prosansanosmilus, which lived in Spain, France, and Germany during the Late Miocene

Miocene

The Miocene is a geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about . The Miocene was named by Sir Charles Lyell. Its name comes from the Greek words and and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern sea invertebrates than the Pliocene. The Miocene follows the Oligocene...

epoch.