Metailurus

Metailurus is a genus of saber-toothed cat in the family Felidae, and belonging to the tribe Metailurini, which occurred in North America, Eurasia and Africa from the Miocene to the Middle Pleistocene.

Metailurus

Izvora · CC BY 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
MetailuriniPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Felidae
Life habit
scansorialPBDB, for Felidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 7.9 million years on record.

The record covers at least 8.725 Mya to 774 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 15.98 Mya to 129 ka.

Miocene — about 18 of 21 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 2 of 21 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 1 of 21 occurrencesPleistocene16–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 1 occurrence11–10 Mya — about 1 occurrence10–9.9 Mya — about 1 occurrence9.9–9.3 Mya — about 1 occurrence9.3–8.8 Mya — about 1 occurrence8.8–8.2 Mya — about 2 occurrences8.2–7.7 Mya — about 2 occurrences7.7–7.1 Mya — about 2 occurrences7.1–6.6 Mya — about 2 occurrences6.6–6.0 Mya — about 2 occurrences6.0–5.5 Mya — about 2 occurrences5.5–4.9 Mya — about 1 occurrence4.9–4.4 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences4.4–3.8 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences3.8–3.3 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.1–549 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences549 ka–0 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences8.725 Mya774 ka16.5 Mya0 Mya

21 occurrences of Metailurus on record, most of them in the Miocene. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

21 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

10 formations

Nawata — 2.90°N, 36.05°ENawata or Nachukui — 2.90°N, 36.05°EAlfambra — 40.35°N, 2.60°WXianshuihe — 43.65°N, 112.66°EBahe — 34.15°N, 109.33°ETriglia — 40.03°N, 23.47°EChersonian — 47.25°N, 28.69°ENea Messimvria — 40.77°N, 22.79°EPikermi — 38.00°N, 23.96°ELukeino — 0.76°N, 35.88°E

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The named rock units Metailurus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 11 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Metailurus and its relatives

Miocene

Where Metailurus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

455 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 19 sites for Metailurus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

17 references

Each of the 21 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 5 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Metailurus

Credit
Izvora
Licence
CC BY 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Laser scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Metailurus major · PMU:21771-2

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itMetailurini through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Zdansky 1924