Nimravidae

Nimravidae is an extinct family of carnivorans, sometimes known as false saber-toothed cats, whose fossils are found in North America, Africa, and Eurasia. Nimravids were the first lineage of carnivorans to evolve large body sizes and specialized into hunting large bodied prey. Not considered to belong to the true cats, the nimravids are generally considered closely related and classified as a distinct family in the suborder Feliformia. The family consisted of three subfamilies hoplophonines, nimravines, and barbourofelines. Barboroufelines were initially classified as a subfamily of the Nimravidae since 1991, however in 2004, they were reassigned to their own distinct family. Since 2020, the majority of experts consider barbourofelines as nimravids again. Nimravids first appeared in the Middle Eocene in Asia, with Maofelis being the most plesiomorphic taxa. The family went extinct around 7 Ma.

Nimravidae

Rama · CC BY-SA 2.0 fr · 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
Also called
false sabre-toothPBDB
Sits inside
FeliformiaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 28 million years on record.

The record covers at least 37.71 Mya to 9.4 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 48.07 Mya to 4.7 Mya.

Eocene — about 37 of 210 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 121 of 210 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 52 of 210 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 210 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences47–46 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences46–44 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences44–43 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences43–41 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 1 occurrence38–37 Mya — about 3 occurrences37–35 Mya — about 15 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 15 occurrences34–32 Mya — about 32 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 24 occurrences31–29 Mya — about 18 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 15 occurrences28–26 Mya — about 12 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 11 occurrences25–23 Mya — about 8 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 3 occurrences22–20 Mya — about 2 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 4 occurrences19–17 Mya — about 3 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 6 occurrences16–14 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 3 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 11 occurrences11–9.8 Mya — about 11 occurrences9.8–8.3 Mya — about 5 occurrences8.3–6.8 Mya — about 2 occurrences6.8–5.3 Mya — about 2 occurrences5.3–3.8 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences37.71 Mya9.4 Mya48.9 Mya3.8 Mya

210 occurrences of Nimravidae on record, most of them in the Oligocene. 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

210 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

31 formations

Brule — 43.30°N, 102.50°WBrule — 40.80°N, 103.10°WBrule — 43.90°N, 102.40°WBrule — 42.80°N, 103.10°WBrule — 46.90°N, 102.80°WBrule — 43.00°N, 104.23°WBrule — 42.83°N, 104.25°WBrule — 43.85°N, 102.50°WBrule — 43.60°N, 102.45°WBrule — 43.20°N, 103.20°WBrule — 41.70°N, 103.10°WBrule — 43.80°N, 103.10°WBrule — 42.68°N, 103.40°WBrule — 43.57°N, 100.75°WJohn Day — 44.67°N, 119.63°WJohn Day — 44.60°N, 119.62°WJohn Day — 44.67°N, 119.65°WWhite River — 43.20°N, 107.10°WWhite River — 40.80°N, 103.10°WAsh Hollow — 40.50°N, 100.50°WAsh Hollow — 42.70°N, 100.00°WAsh Hollow — 42.80°N, 100.80°WAsh Hollow — 41.20°N, 101.80°WChadron — 43.60°N, 102.45°WChadron — 42.80°N, 103.10°WChadron — 42.80°N, 103.40°WChadron — 43.30°N, 102.50°WChadron — 43.65°N, 102.82°WQuercy Phosphorites — 44.27°N, 1.63°ESharps — 43.30°N, 102.50°WSharps — 43.50°N, 101.90°WDove Spring — 35.30°N, 118.50°WDove Spring — 35.37°N, 117.99°WHsanda Gol — 45.46°N, 101.20°EHsanda Gol — 45.27°N, 101.76°EHsanda Gol — 45.30°N, 102.08°ECypress Hills — 49.57°N, 109.88°WCypress Hills — 49.60°N, 108.80°WErgilin Dzo — 43.73°N, 111.25°EErgilin Dzo — 43.37°N, 108.66°ESespe — 34.25°N, 118.96°WBrackwater Molasse — 48.48°N, 10.10°EKrabi Basin B2 — 7.97°N, 99.06°EClarno — 44.93°N, 120.42°WRenova — 46.00°N, 112.00°WPomerado — 32.85°N, 117.03°WGering — 41.70°N, 103.10°WOtay — 32.90°N, 117.10°WCrystal River — 29.75°N, 82.63°WOgallala — 37.20°N, 99.90°WAlachua — 29.55°N, 82.52°WEsmeralda — 38.25°N, 117.90°WGreen Valley — 37.81°N, 121.91°W

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The named rock units Nimravidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 7 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 84 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Nimravidae and its relatives

Oligocene

Where Nimravidae and its relatives were recorded in the Oligocene.

Found in the same rock

1,825 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 162 sites for Nimravidae, 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

90 references

Each of the 210 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. 78 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 Nimravidae

Credit
Rama
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.0 fr
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itFeliformia through timeFormations of the OligoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cope 1880