''Yoshi'' is an extinct

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

of machairodontine sabertooth cat in the tribe

Metailurini Metailurini is an extinct taxonomic tribe of large saber-toothed cats that lived in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America from the Miocene to the Pleistocene. The best known Metalurini genera are ''Dinofelis'' and '' Metailurus''. Metailurini ...

. Its fossils were described from

Turolian The Turolian age is a period of geologic time (9.0–5.3 Ma) within the Miocene used more specifically with European Land Mammal Ages. It precedes the Ruscinian age and follows the Vallesian age. The Turolian overlaps the Tortonian The Tort ...

deposits from the

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 of the Balkan Peninsula in 2014 and specimens from China once thought to belong to ''

Metailurus ''Metailurus'' is a genus of saber-toothed cat in the family Felidae, and belonging to the tribe Metailurini, which occurred in North America, Eurasia and Africa from the Miocene to the Middle Pleistocene. This genus was formally described by O. ...

''. The name comes from that of the lead author's pet cat. It has been described as potentially being synonymous with ''Metailurus'', though this is difficult to confirm at present. The type specimen is a skull that bears remarkable similarities with the modern

cheetah The cheetah (''Acinonyx jubatus'') is a large cat native to Africa and central Iran. It is the fastest land animal, estimated to be capable of running at with the fastest reliably recorded speeds being , and as such has evolved specialized ...

. ''Yoshi'' is intermediate in size between a lynx and cougar, and based on several as-yet unpublished skeletons (), may have had a similar lifestyle to the cheetah, being better built for speed and fast pursuit than most other machairodonts, which were more suited to

ambush An ambush is a long-established military tactic in which a combatant uses an advantage of concealment or the element of surprise to attack unsuspecting enemy combatants from concealed positions, such as among dense underbrush or behind mo ...

and hunting large, relatively slow moving animals. In 2022, two new species ''Yoshi faie'' and ''Yoshi yongdengensis'' were proposed based on fossils found in northeastern China.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q28432831 Metailurini Miocene carnivorans Miocene genus extinctions Prehistoric carnivoran genera Miocene mammals of Europe Fossil taxa described in 2014