''Prosansanosmilus'' is an extinct genus of barbourofelid that lived in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

during the Early

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

epoch from 18 to 15.97 mya, existing for approximately . ''^{Including supplementary materials}'' It contains ''Prosansanosmilus peregrinus'', which died out in the Miocene epoch.

Taxonomy

''Prosansanosmilus'' was named in 1980 by Heizmann et al. with the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

''Prosansanosmilus peregrinus''. It was assigned to

Nimravinae The Nimravinae are a subfamily of the Nimravidae, an extinct family of feliform mammalian carnivores sometimes known as false saber-toothed cats. They were found in North America, Europe, and Asia from the Middle Eocene through the Late Oligoc ...

by Heizmann et al. (1980); to

Felidae Felidae ( ) is the Family (biology), family of mammals in the Order (biology), order Carnivora colloquially referred to as cats. A member of this family is also called a felid ( ). The 41 extant taxon, extant Felidae species exhibit the gre ...

by Carroll (1988); to Barbourofelinae by Bryant (1991); and to Barbourofelidae by Morlo et al. (2004) and Morlo (2006). A second species, ''P. eggeri'' from the Middle Miocene locality of Sandelzhausen, Germany, was described in 2004. It differed from other European barbourofelids in having a more

plesiomorphic In phylogenetics, a plesiomorphy ("near form") and symplesiomorphy are synonyms for an ancestral character shared by all members of a clade, which does not distinguish the clade from other clades. Plesiomorphy, symplesiomorphy, apomorphy, an ...

("ancestral") morphology, with less developed sabretooth adaptations and being smaller. However, the species is stratigraphically younger than ''P. peregrinus''; and probably part of the African faunal immigration into Europe during the Middle Eocene.

Distribution

''P. peregrinus'' lived in MN4 of France and Germany. Two fossils of ''P. peregrinus'' have been found in France and another two have been found in Germany. ''P. peregrinus'' was a ground-dwelling creature.

Morphology

Like all barbourofelids, ''Prosansanosmilus'' was very muscular, short legged and probably walked plantigrade (flat-footed). There are only two species of ''Prosansanosmilus'', which lived in Spain, France and Germany during the Late

epoch.

Time range

''P. peregrinus'' is thought to have lived between 16.9 and 16 Mya. New evidence suggests that ''P. peregrinus'' lived 20–16 Mya. German scientists excavated a fossil of ''P. peregrinus'' dating 20 Mya. Other scientists think that ''P. peregrinus'' lived between 16.9 and 15.7 Mya.

References

Barbourofelidae Prehistoric mammals of Europe Miocene carnivorans Prehistoric carnivoran genera {{paleo-carnivora-stub