Dinictis
| Dinictis | |
|---|---|
| Skeleton from South Dakota, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Family: | †Nimravidae |
| Subfamily: | †Nimravinae |
| Genus: | †Dinictis Leidy, 1854 |
| Type species | |
| †Dinictis felina Leidy, 1854
| |
Dinictis is a genus of the Nimravidae, an extinct family of feliform mammalian carnivores, also known as "false saber-toothed cats". Assigned to the subfamily Nimravinae, Dinictis was endemic to North America from the Late Eocene to Early Oligocene epochs (35.7—29.5 million years ago), existing for about 6.2 million years.[1] Including supplementary materials
Taxonomy
Dinictis was named by American paleontologist Joseph Leidy in 1854. Its type is Dinictis felina. It was assigned to the Nimravidae by Cope (1880);[2] and to the Nimravinae by Flynn and Galiano (1982), Bryant (1991), and Martin (1998).[3][4]
In a 2016 study, the genus was found to contain only the species Dinictis felina.[5]
Description
Dinictis had a sleek body 1.1 m (3.6 ft) long, short legs 0.45 m (1.5 ft) high with only incompletely retractable claws, powerful jaws, and a long tail. Dinictis walked plantigrade (flat-footed), unlike modern felids.[6] A 2012 study estimated that Dinictis could've weighed around 20 kg (44 lb).[7] The shape of its skull is reminiscent of a felid skull rather than of the extremely short skull of the Machairodontinae.[6] Dinictis possessed an ectotympanic characterised by separated ossified caudal and rostral entotympanic elements.[8] Compared with those of the more recent machairodonts, its upper canines were relatively small, but they nevertheless distinctly protruded from its mouth. Below the tips of the canines, its lower jaw spread out in the form of a lobe.[6]
Ecology
Dinictis lived in North America with fossils found in Saskatchewan, Canada and Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Wyoming, and Oregon in the United States.[1] Including supplementary materials Fossil evidence suggests Hyenaodon horridus may have occasionally predated on Dinictis.[9]
References
- ^ a b Barrett, Paul Zachary (26 October 2021). "The largest hoplophonine and a complex new hypothesis of nimravid evolution". Scientific Reports. 11 (1): 21078. Bibcode:2021NatSR..1121078B. doi:10.1038/s41598-021-00521-1. PMC 8548586. PMID 34702935. S2CID 240000358.
- ^ "On the extinct cats of America". 1880.
- ^ J. J. Flynn and H. Galiano. 1982. Phylogeny of early Tertiary Carnivora, with a description of a new species of Protictis from the middle Eocene of northwestern Wyoming. American Museum Novitates
- ^ H. N. Bryant. 1991. Phylogenetic relationships and systematics of the Nimravidae (Carnivora). Journal of Mammalogy.
- ^ Barrett, P. Z. (2016). "Taxonomic and systematic revisions to the North American Nimravidae (Mammalia, Carnivora)". PeerJ. 4 e1658. doi:10.7717/peerj.1658. PMC 4756750. PMID 26893959.
- ^ a b c Antón, Mauricio (2013). Sabertooth. Bloomington, Indiana: University of Indiana Press. p. 91. ISBN 978-0-253-01042-1.
- ^ Meachen, J. A. (2012). "Morphological convergence of the prey-killing arsenal of sabertooth predators". Paleobiology. 38 (1). doi:10.2307/41432156.
- ^ Joeckel, R. M.; Peigné, Stéphane; Hunt, Robert M.; Skolnick, Robert I. (14 January 2003). "The auditory region and nasal cavity of Oligocene Nimravidae (Mammalia: Carnivora)". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 22 (4): 830–847. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2002)022[0830:TARANC]2.0.CO;2. ISSN 0272-4634. Archived from the original on 13 October 2022. Retrieved 8 March 2026 – via Taylor and Francis Online.
- ^ John W. Hoganson and Jeff Person (2011). "Tooth puncture marks on a 30 million year old Dinictis skull.", Geo News, p. 12-17
Benes, Josef. Prehistoric Animals and Plants. Pg. 204. Prague: Artua, 1979.