''Pseudaelurus'' is a prehistoric

cat The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of ...

that lived in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

and

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...

in the

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first 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 means "less recen ...

between approximately twenty and eight million years ago. It is considered to be a

paraphyletic In taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In ...

grade ancestral to living

felines The Felinae are a subfamily of the family Felidae. This subfamily comprises the small cats having a bony hyoid, because of which they are able to purr but not roar. Other authors have proposed an alternative definition for this subfamily: a ...

and pantherines as well as the extinct

machairodonts Machairodontinae is an extinct subfamily of carnivoran mammals of the family Felidae (true cats). They were found in Asia, Africa, North America, South America, and Europe from the Miocene to the Pleistocene, living from about 16 mill ...

(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 The cat gap is a period in the fossil record of approximately 25 million to 18.5 million years ago in which there are few fossils of cats or cat-like species found in North America. The cause of the "cat gap" is disputed, but it may have been ca ...

' 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.

Species and distribution

''Pseudaelurus quadridentatus'' weighed about and was approximately the size of a

cougar The cougar (''Puma concolor'') is a large cat native to the Americas. Its range spans from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes in South America and is the most widespread of any large wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere. ...

. ''Pseudaelurus guangheensis'' from the middle Miocene of

Gansu Gansu (, ; alternately romanized as Kansu) is a province in Northwest China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeast part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibe ...

(China) and ''Pseudaelurus cuspidatus'' from the middle Miocene of

Xinjiang Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwes ...

(China) are reported.

Taxonomy and phylogeny

Traditionally all the ''Pseudaelurus''-grade species from Europe, Asia, and North America have been assigned to a single genus, even though the paraphyletic nature of the group has often being noted. Several authorities have split ''Pseudaelurus'' into separate genera or subgenera, including '' Hyperailurictis'', '' Styriofelis'', ''Miopanthera'' and ''Schizailurus''. These different groups of ''Pseudaelurus''-grade felids are often considered to have given rise to later felid lineages. The genus ''Styriofelis'' was originally proposed in 1929 by Kretzoi for the species ''Pseudaelurus turnaeunsis''. Kretzoi also proposed the genus ''Hyperailurictis'' for the North American species ''Pseudaelurus intrepidus'', and ''Miopanthera'' for ''Ps. lorteti''. In 1964, Beaumont elaborated on Kretzoi's proposal and split ''Pseudaelurus'' into three separate genera: ''Pseudaelurus'' for the European ''Ps. quadridentatus'', ''Schizailurus'' for ''Ps. lorteti'', and ''Hyperailurictis'' for ''Ps. intrepidus''.

Taxonomic history

In 1843, the paleontologist de Blainville published a description of a felid cranium and lower jaw fragment from Sansan, France. He assigned these fossils to a new species, ''Felis quadridentata''. The cranium was later reassigned to another species, but in 1850 the lower jaw fragment was assigned to a new genus by Paul Gervais as ''Pseudaelurus quadridentatus'', due to having certain primitive features. In 1858, Joseph Leidy described the species ''Felis intrepidus'', from North America, and reassigned the species as ''Pseudaelurus intrepidus'' in 1869. After that discovery, another eight species of ''Pseudaelurus'' would be described in North America, but only five are still considered valid. In 1872, Henri Filhol described the species ''Pseudaelurus edwardsi'' from France, but the species was reassigned to the nimravid genus ''Eofelis'' in 2000. In 1882, a second species from Europe was described as ''Pseudaelurus turauensis'', and a third species, ''Pseudaelurus lorteti'', in 1899. The fourth European species, ''Pseudaelurus romieviensis'', was described in 1934. In addition, the species ''Pseudaelurus transitorius'' was described in 1892, but most later authors considered it a synonym of ''P. turnaeunsis''. In 1914, fossils from Africa were described and assigned to the species ''Pseudaelurus africanus''. However, the species was later reassigned to first the genus ''Metailurus'' and finally to '' Afrosmilus''. In Asia, the first description of ''Pseudaelurus'' was in 1910, when a fragmentary fossil was assigned to ''Pseudaelurus chinjiensis''; however, it was reassigned in 1915 to the new genus ''

Sivaelurus ''Sivaelurus'' is an extinct genus of felid. The type and only species, ''S. chinjiensis'', was described based on a fragmentary fossil found in Asia. It was originally described as ''Pseudaelurus chinjiensis'' in 1910, but was reassigned to a ne ...

''. The next appearance of ''Pseudaelurus''-grade felids in Asia wasn't until 1986, when a lower jaw fragment and some dental fragments were assigned to the species ''Pseudaelurus lorteti''. In 1990, the species ''Pseudaelurus guangheensis'' was described. In 1998, a second Asian species, ''Pseudaelurus cuspidatus'', was also described. Both of the Asian species are known only from fragmentary fossils. In 1998, while measuring fragmentary fossils from the Hsanda-Gol locality in Mongolia, Robert Hunt referred a lower jaw fragment to ''Proailurus'' sp.; while this was reassigned to the nimravid genus ''Eofelis'' in 1999 instead, a 2004 review of felid material from other localities in Mongolia suggested that it could belong to ''Pseudaelurus cuspidatus'' instead, on basis of having similar features. However, the Hsanda-Gol specimen is dated back to the Oligocene, while ''Pseudaelurus cuspidatus'' is found solely in Miocene-aged localities. The same paper also described a pair of fragments (a lower jaw fragment and a metapodial) and attributed them to ''Pseudaelurus'' sp. In 2010, a review of the Felidae as a whole suggested that ''Pseudaelurus'' be split into three genera: ''Hyperailurictis'' for the five North American species, ''Styriofelis'' for two of the European species (''P. lorteti'' and ''P. turnaunensis''), and ''Pseudaelurus'' ''sensu stricto'' for ''P. quadridentatus''. The status of ''P. romieviensis'', ''P. guangheensis'', and ''P. cuspidatus'' was given as uncertain. In addition, ''Miopanthera'' and ''Schizailurus'' were recognized as junior synonyms of ''Styriofelis''. In 2012, a new species ''Styriofelis vallesiensis'' was described based on a specimen found in Spain. However, a review of the species in 2017 concluded that ''Leptofelis'' was sufficiently different from other ''Styriofelis'' species as to require a separate genus. It was thus reassigned to the new genus ''

Leptofelis ''Leptofelis'' is an extinct genus of '' Pseudaelurus''-grade felid found in Spain. Etymology The generic name ''Leptofelis'' comes from the Latin words for swift, ''lepto'', and cat, ''felis'', essentially translating to "swift cat". The spec ...

'' as ''Leptofelis vallesiensis''. In 2017, a review of the species ''Felis pamiri'', which was named based on a snout fragment from Turkey and dated to the late Miocene, concluded that ''Felis pamiri'' and ''Pseudaelurus lorteti'' were likely closely related to each other, and ancestral to the ''Panthera'' lineage. Both species were reassigned to the genus ''

Miopanthera ''Miopanthera'' is an extinct genus of '' Pseudaelurus''-grade felids. Taxonomy The genus ''Miopanthera'' was first proposed in 1938 by Kretzoi for the species ''Pseudaelurus lorteti''. ''P. lorteti'' had previously been described as such in 189 ...

'' as ''Miopanthera lorteti'' and ''Miopanthera pamiri''.

Phylogeny

The following cladogram is based on Piras et al. (2013) and illustrates the three more derived lineages that evolved from "''Pseudaelurus''" species.

References

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q132747 Prehistoric felids Miocene felids Tortonian extinctions Miocene mammals of Europe Miocene mammals of North America Prehistoric carnivoran genera Burdigalian first appearances Fossil taxa described in 1850