In Depth
One of the lesser known machairodonts, the placement of Adelphailurus within the machairodontinae has been questioned with speculation that it may be a false sabre-tooth. Adelphailurus also had a pair of second premolar teeth, a primitive feature that harks back to the early days of felid evolution. Although fossil remains of Adelphailurus are usually very incomplete, they have been noted as being very similar to the modern Puma concolor (a.k.a. cougar/mountain lion) in both physical proportion and size. This in turn has led to speculation that back in the late Miocene, Adelphailurus may have had a similar ecological niche as today’s Puma concolor.
Further Reading
- Two new genera of Felidae from the middle Pliocene of Kansas. Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Sciences 37:239-255. - C. W. Hibbard - 1934. - Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution. - W. H. Freeman and Company, New York 1-698. - R. L. Carroll - 1988. - Evolution of Tertiary Mammals of North America 1:236-242 - L. D. Martin ( C. M. Janis, K. M. Scott, and L. L. Jacobs (eds.)) - 1998.
