Pseudaelurus

Pseudaelurus is a prehistoric cat that lived in Europe, Asia and North America in the Miocene between approximately twenty and eight million years ago. It is considered to be a paraphyletic grade ancestral to living felines and pantherines as well as the extinct machairodonts (saber-tooths), and is a successor to Proailurus. It originated from Eurasia and was the first cat to reach North America, when it entered the continent at about 18.5 Ma ending a 'cat-gap' of 7 million years. The slender proportions of the animal, together with its short, viverrid-like legs, suggest that it may have been an agile climber of trees.

Pseudaelurus

Ghedoghedo · CC BY-SA 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
FelidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB
Life habit
scansorialPBDB, for Felidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 16 million years on record.

The record covers at least 16.9 Mya to 774 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 23.04 Mya to 129 ka.

Oligocene — about 0 of 86 occurrencesMiocene — about 84 of 86 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 86 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 1 of 86 occurrencesPleistocene24–23 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 1 occurrence20–19 Mya — about 1 occurrence19–18 Mya — about 2 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 3 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 5 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 9 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 9 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 9 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 8 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 7 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 4 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 4 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 3 occurrences10–9.4 Mya — about 3 occurrences9.4–8.6 Mya — about 2 occurrences8.6–7.8 Mya — about 3 occurrences7.8–7.1 Mya — about 3 occurrences7.1–6.3 Mya — about 3 occurrences6.3–5.5 Mya — about 3 occurrences5.5–4.7 Mya — about 2 occurrences4.7–3.9 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences785 ka–0 Mya — about 1 occurrence16.9 Mya774 ka23.5 Mya0 Mya

86 occurrences of Pseudaelurus 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

86 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

24 formations

Olcott — 42.03°N, 102.75°WOlcott — 42.40°N, 103.80°WOlcott — 42.19°N, 103.73°WValentine — 42.80°N, 100.80°WValentine — 42.60°N, 98.00°WSheep Creek — 42.40°N, 103.80°WTemblor — 35.46°N, 118.92°WTemblor — 36.54°N, 120.55°WTemblor — 35.30°N, 118.50°WAsh Hollow — 42.80°N, 100.80°WAsh Hollow — 41.30°N, 105.10°WRancho Viejo Beds — 21.08°N, 100.67°WRancho Viejo Beds — 21.10°N, 100.80°WEsmeralda — 38.25°N, 117.90°WEsmeralda — 37.96°N, 118.03°WCaliente — 34.30°N, 119.00°WPawnee Creek Beds — 40.80°N, 103.10°WWood Mountain — 49.20°N, 106.20°WJuntura — 43.60°N, 117.50°WButte Creek — 43.60°N, 117.50°WAvawatz — 34.80°N, 117.00°WTesuque — 35.50°N, 106.20°WMR Caliente — 34.30°N, 119.00°WBig Sandy — 34.70°N, 113.40°WBanta Shut-In — 29.27°N, 103.05°WBrackwater Molasse — 48.48°N, 10.10°EAntonios — 40.50°N, 23.00°ELoh — 45.34°N, 101.83°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.66°N, 10.23°ELoup Fork — 42.70°N, 102.50°WMascall — 44.00°N, 120.13°WBarstow — 35.06°N, 117.08°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Pseudaelurus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 46 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Pseudaelurus and its relatives

Miocene

Where Pseudaelurus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

1,142 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 77 sites for Pseudaelurus, 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

57 references

Each of the 86 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. 45 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 Pseudaelurus

Credit
Ghedoghedo
Licence
CC BY-SA 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
Pseudaelurus stouti · UCMP:V:151371

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 itFelidae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Leidy 1858)