Sansanosmilus
Sansanosmilus is an extinct genus of carnivorous mammal of the family Barbourofelidae (false saber-tooth cats) endemic to Europe and Asia, which lived during the Miocene, 13.6—11.1 mya, existing for approximately 2.5 million years .[1]
| Sansanosmilus Temporal range: Late Miocene | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Skull of S. palmidens | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Suborder: | Feliformia |
| Family: | †Barbourofelidae |
| Genus: | †Sansanosmilus Kretzoi, 1929 |
| Species | |
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S. palmidens | |
Taxonomy
Sansanosmilus was named by Kretzoi (1929). It was assigned to Hoplophoneinae by Flynn and Galiano (1982); to Felidae by Carroll (1988); to Barbourofelinae by Bryant (1991); and to Barbourofelidae by Morlo et al. (2004) and Morlo (2006)
It had short legs, was very muscular and had a long tail. Sansanosmilus was 1.5 m long and probably weighed around 80 kg. In 1961, paleontologist L. Ginsburg concluded that Sansanosmilus was possessed of a plantigrade walking stance, after studying its foot bones and comparing it with those of the true felid Pseudaelurus from the same site. This is different from later barbourofelids, which are believed to have had semi-plantigrade or semi-digitigrade stances.[2]
Species of Sansanosmilus
- Sansanosmilus jourdani - which lived during the Astaracian and Vallesian stages in Spain, Germany and France
- Sansanosmilus palmidens - which lived in the Orleanian and Astaracian stages in France and China
- Sansanosmilus vallesiensis (or Sansanosmilus jourdani vallesiensis) - which lived in the Vallesian stage in Spain
However, Robles et al. (2013) transferred S. jourdani (which they considered to be a senior synonym of S. vallesiensis) to the genus Albanosmilus.[3]
References
- PaleoBiology Database: Sansanosmilus, basic info
- Anton, Mauricio (2013). Sabertooth.
- Josep M. Robles; David M. Alba; Josep Fortuny; Soledad De Esteban-Trivigno; Cheyenn Rotgers; Jordi Balaguer; Raül Carmona; Jordi Galindo; Sergio Almécija; Juan V. Bertó & Salvador Moyà-Solà (2013). "New craniodental remains of the barbourofelid Albanosmilus jourdani (Filhol, 1883) from the Miocene of the Vallès-Penedès Basin (NE Iberian Peninsula) and the phylogeny of the Barbourofelini". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. in press. doi:10.1080/14772019.2012.724090.