Sansanosmilus
| Prosansanosmilus Temporal range: Late Miocene | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Family: | Barbourofelidae |
| Genus: | Sansanosmilus Kretzoi, 1929 |
| Species | |
|
S. palmidens | |
Sansanosmilus (pronounced - San-San-Oh-SMILE-Uss) is an extinct genus of carnivorous mammal of the family Barbourofelidae (false saber-tooth cats) endemic to Europe and Asia, which lived during the Miocene, 13.6—11.1 mya, existing for approximately 2.5 million years.[1]
Taxonomy
Sansanosmilus was named by Kretzoi (1929). It was assigned to Hoplophoneinae by Flynn and Galiano (1982); to Felidae by Carroll (1988); to Barbourofelinae by Bryant (1991); and to Barbourofelidae by Morlo et al. (2004) and Morlo (2006)
It had short legs, was very muscular and had a long tail. Sansanosmilus was 1.5 m long and probably weighed around 80 kg.
Species of Sansanosmilus
- Sansanosmilus jourdani - which lived during the Astaracian and Vallesian stages in Spain, Germany and France
- Sansanosmilus palmidens - which lived in the Orleanian and Astaracian stages in France and China
- Sansanosmilus vallesiensis (or Sansanosmilus jourdani vallesiensis) - which lived in the Vallesian stage in Spain
However, Robles et al. (2013) transferred S. jourdani (which they considered to be a senior synonym of S. vallesiensis) to the genus Albanosmilus.[2]
References
- ↑ PaleoBiology Database: Sansanosmilus, basic info
- ↑ Josep M. Robles, David M. Alba, Josep Fortuny, Soledad De Esteban-Trivigno, Cheyenn Rotgers, Jordi Balaguer, Raül Carmona, Jordi Galindo, Sergio Almécija, Juan V. Bertó and Salvador Moyà-Solà (2013). "New craniodental remains of the barbourofelid Albanosmilus jourdani (Filhol, 1883) from the Miocene of the Vallès-Penedès Basin (NE Iberian Peninsula) and the phylogeny of the Barbourofelini". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. in press. doi:10.1080/14772019.2012.724090.