In Depth Further Reading – Two forms of cave lion: Middle Pleistocene Panthera spelaea fossilis Reichenau, 1906 and Upper Pleistocene Panthera spelaea spelaea Goldfuss, 1810 from the B�snik Cave, Poland – Adrian Marciszak & Krzysztof Stefaniak – 2010. – The hunted hunter: the capture of a lion (Panthera leo fossilis) at the Gran Dolina site, … Read more
In Depth Although not very well known, Arctamphicyon might have been one of the last surviving genera of bear dog. This is based upon analysis of the faunal assemblage Dhok Pathan Formation which has yielded a concentration of other animals from these eras. Further Reading – A new amphicyonid (Mammalia, Carnivora, Amphicyonidae) from the late … Read more
In Depth Whereas Smilodon is without doubt the most famous prehistoric big cat, Dinofelis is the most notorious. This notoriety comes from the long association of Dinofelis hunting and eating early hominids like Homo habilis, Paranthropus and Australopithecus afarensis, thought by some to be an ancestor to modern humans. This predation reveals that Dinofelis was … Read more
In Depth The fossil material for Magericyon was originally described as a species of Amphicyon until a new study by Peigne et al in 2008. Magericyon was found to be different from Amphicyon by close study of the form and proportion of the teeth. In naming the new genus the describers chose the name Magericyon … Read more
In Depth Further Reading Further reading- Ancient DNA evidence for the loss of a highly divergent brown bear clade during historical times. – Molecular Ecology 17 (8): 1962–1970. S. Calvignac, S. Hughes, C. Tougard, J. Michaux, M. Thevenot, M. Philippe, W. Hamdine & C. Hanni – 2008.
In Depth Further Reading – Preliminary report on the vertebrate type locality of Cita Canyon and the description of an ancestral coyote. – American Journal Science (5)35:383-390. – C. S. Johnston – 1938.
In Depth Bear dogs can often be divided into North American and Eurasian genera, but Cynelos is one of the few genera that what active across both of these areas as well as Africa, a range proven by the discovery of multiple remains on all of these continents. Because Cynelos was a large Miocene era … Read more
In Depth Fossils of Indarctos were first discovered in India, hence the genus name, but as time went on it was discovered that this prolific genus of bear was actually living across most of the old world continents of Africa, Asia and Europe, and even the new world continent of north America, especially the western … Read more
In Depth As a barbourofelid Ginsburgsmilus is more popularly known as a ‘false sabre-toothed cat’ since the Barbourofelidae are not thought to related to modern cats of today beyond the fact that they are all members of the Carnivora. As such Ginsburgsmilus is related to other members of the Barbourofelidae such as Sansanosmilus, Prosansanosmilus, Afrosmilus … Read more
In Depth The name Dinocrocuta translates to English as ‘terrible hyena’, with ‘dino meaning terrible and the ‘crocuta’ part being a reference to the Crocuta genus which is home to modern hyenas that we can see alive today. This is born out of a superficial similarity in physical form between modern hyenas and Dinocrocuta, however … Read more