Barbourofelidae

Barbourofelidae is an extinct family of mammalian carnivores of the suborder Feliformia, which lived in North America, Eurasia and Africa during the Miocene epoch (16.9—9.0 mya), existing for approximately 7.9 million years.^[1]

Taxonomy

Barbourofelinae was named by Schultz et al. (1970). It is not extant. Its type is Barbourofelis. It was re-ranked as the family Barbourofelidae by Morlo et al. (2004). It was assigned to Nimravidae by Bryant (1991); and to Carnivora by Morlo et al. (2004).^[2][3]

Barbourofelidae were previously placed as a subfamily of the extinct Nimravidae, the barbourofelids have been recently assigned to their own distinct family, and are now thought to be taxonomically closer to the Felidae than to the Nimravidae. They first appear in the fossil record in the early Miocene of Africa. By the end of the early Miocene a land bridge had opened between Africa and Eurasia, allowing for a faunal exchange between the two continents. Barbourofelids migrated at least three times from Africa to Europe (Morlo 2006) ^[4]. While evolving in Europe to the genus Sansanosmilus, Barbourofelids migrated also through Eurasia and reached North America by the late Miocene, represented there by the genus Barbourofelis only.

Classification

• Family †Barbourofelidae
  • Genus †Ginsburgsmilus
    • †Ginsburgsmilus napakensis
  • Genus †Afrosmilus
    • †Afrosmilus turkanae
    • †Afrosmilus africanus
    • †Afrosmilus hispanicus
  • Genus †Prosansanosmilus
    • †Prosansanosmilus peregrinus
    • †Prosansanosmilus eggeri
  • Genus †Sansanosmilus
    • †Sansanosmilus palmidens
    • †Sansanosmilus jourdani
    • †Sansanosmilus vallesiensis
    • †Sansanosmilus piveteaui
  • Genus †Syrtosmilus
    • †Syrtosmilus syrtensis
  • Genus †Vampyrictis
    • †Vampyrictis vipera
  • Genus †Barbourofelis
    • †Barbourofelis whitfordi
    • †Barbourofelis lovei
    • †Barbourofelis morrisi
    • †Barbourofelis fricki

References

• MICHAEL MORLO, STÉPHANE PEIGNÉ and DORIS NAGEL (January 2004). "A new species of Prosansanosmilus: implications for the systematic relationships of the family Barbourofelidae new rank (Carnivora, Mammalia)". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 140 (1): 43. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2004.00087.x. 
• Lars W. van den Hoek Ostende, Michael Morlo & Doris Nagel (July 2006). "Fossils explained 52 Majestic killers: the sabre-toothed cats". Geology Today 22 (4): 150. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2451.2006.00572.x. 
• Michael Morlo (2006). "New remains of Barbourofelidae from the Miocene of Southern Germany: implications for the history of barbourid migrations". Beiträge zur Paläontologie, Wien 30: 339–346. .