''Paramachaerodus'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

genus of saber-tooth cat of the

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end subfamily botanical names with "-oideae", and zoologi ...

Machairodontinae 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 million until ...

, which was endemic to Europe and Asia during the late Miocene from 15 to 9 Ma. ''Paramacheirodus'' is one of the oldest known true saber-toothed cats. Many fossils were discovered in Cerro de los Batallones, a Late Miocene fossil site near Madrid, Spain. One leopard-sized species is known, ''Paramachaerodus orientalis'' from the Turolian. A second species, ''Paramachairodus maximiliani'', has been considered a synonym of ''Paramachaerodus orientalis'' by some authors, but was considered a valid species in the most recent systematic revision. That revision, based on an extensive morphological analysis, also determined that the species ''P. ogygia'' exhibited less derived sabertooth features than the other ''Paramachairodus'' species and should be assigned to a separate genus, ''

Promegantereon ''Promegantereon'' is an extinct genus of machairodont from the Miocene of Europe. It is one of the oldest machairodont cat species in the Smilodontini and is believed to be an ancestor of ''Megantereon'' and ''Smilodon''. Description ''Promega ...

''. A third species, ''Paramachairodus transasiaticus'', has recently been described based on analysis of new fossil material from the late Miocene localities of Hezheng, Gansu Province, China, and Hadjidimovo, Bulgaria. These specimens had sabertooth characteristics intermediate between those of ''P. ogygia'' and those of ''P. orientalis'' and ''P. maximiliani''. The animals were about high at the shoulder, similar to a

leopard The leopard (''Panthera pardus'') is one of the five extant species in the genus '' Panthera'', a member of the cat family, Felidae. It occurs in a wide range in sub-Saharan Africa, in some parts of Western and Central Asia, Southern Russia, a ...

, but with a more supple body. The shape of its limbs suggests that it may have been an agile climber, and could have hunted relatively large prey. In 2022, a new species ''Paramachaerodus yingliangi'' was proposed based on fossils from northeastern China; the same paper also proposed separating ''Paramachaerodus schlosseri'' as the new type species and moving ''P. orientalis'' and ''P. maximiliani'' to the resurrected genus ''Pontosmilus''.

References

External links

Paramachairodus at the bluelion.org
Smilodontini Miocene felids Prehistoric carnivoran genera Fossil taxa described in 1913 {{feline-stub