In Depth The Sicilian wolf is a distinct sub species of the gray wolf with the species designation Canis lupus cristaldii. The Sicilian wolf was similar to those known from Italy, though with lighter more tawny coloured fur. The dark band across the forelimbs of the Italian wolf was absent or at most faintly … Read more
In Depth Dinaelurus is little known nimravid that is so far only known from the John Day Formation in Oregon, USA. Other North American nimravids that Dinaelurus could have possibly come into contact with include Hoplophoneus, Dinictis, Eusmilus and particularly the type genus of the Nimravidae, Nimravus. Further Reading Further reading- John Day Felidae in … Read more
In Depth Further Reading – Cave occupation during Palaeolithic times: Man and/or Hyena?” in The Role of Early Humans in the accumulation if European Lower and Middle Palaeolithic bone assemblages. – Ergebnisse eines Kolloquiums, vol. 42, Monographien. Edited by S. Gaudzinski and E. Turner, pp. 73-88. Bonn: Verlag des R�misch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums. – P. Fosse – … Read more
In Depth Maofelis is a genus of nimravid that lived in China during the late Eocene. Nimravids are also known as ‘false-sabre-toothed cats’ and this is because while they share a resemblance to the machairodonts which are the ‘true sabre-toothed cats’, nimravids are not true cats, and therefore not members of the Felidae, which machairodonts … Read more
In Depth Although not as famous as Smilodon, Xenosmilus was nonetheless an exceptionally powerful Pleistocene era big cat that is estimated to have weighed between 230-400 kg. This estimate puts Xenosmilus within the same weight class as the largest species of Smilodon, and even though it was smaller, Xenosmilus would have been proportionately stronger for … Read more
In Depth Enaliarctos has been commonly included in books about prehistoric animals where it is credited as being the first pinniped, the groups that seals, sea lions and walruses all belong to. The 2009 description of Puijila however has taken some of the limelight away since this is even more primitive pinneped in form that … Read more
In Depth With confirmed fossils of Daphoenodon stretching all the way from California and Oregon on the west coast to Florida on the east, and between Wyoming and Nebraska in the North and Texas in the South, Daphoenodon had a very broad range across most of the United States. This distribution could have also brought … Read more
In Depth Paramachairodus is a genus of sabre-toothed cat that lived during the Miocene/Pliocene. The Paramachairodus genus represents one of the first true sabre-toothed cats to appear. Further Reading - Aspects of the functional morphology in the cranial and cervical skeleton of the sabre-toothed cat Paramachairodus ogygia (Kaup, 1832) (Felidae, Machairodontinae) from the Late Miocene … Read more
In Depth Most nimravids were relatively small cat-like mammals that ranged between one and two metres in length, but Quercylurus was a giant when compared to these, something which leads to the popular comparison of Quercylurus being the size of a brown bear. This size would make Quercylurus comparable to some of the larger creodont … Read more
In Depth With fossils being recovered from both Oregon and Florida, Pliocyon seems to have a distribution that covered most of the United States. Further Reading – Contributions to the Snake Creek Fauna with notes upon the Pleistocene of western Nebraska, American Museum Expedition of 1916. – Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History … Read more