Megantereon
| Megantereon | ||||||||||||
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Skeleton of Megantereon cultridens in the Natural History Museum Basel |
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Pliocene to Pleistocene | ||||||||||||
| 5 to 0.5 million years | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Megantereon | ||||||||||||
| Croizet & Jobert , 1828 | ||||||||||||
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Megantereon was a genus of extinct saber-toothed cats (Machairodontinae) from the Pliocene and Pleistocene . It is sometimes referred to as the "European saber-toothed cat", which is misleading in two ways, since it was not restricted to Europe and other saber-toothed cats inhabited this continent. Remains have been found in Africa, Europe, Asia, and North America.
Systematics
Internal systematics of the Machairodontinae according to Piras et al. 2018
| Machairodontinae |
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features
In its whole appearance, this saber-toothed cat was very similar to its descendant, the American smilodon . Megantereon , however, was nowhere near as large. In Senèze, a hamlet near Brioude in France, a well-preserved skeleton of Homotherium and a complete skeleton of Megantereon were found. This animal had a shoulder height of about 70 cm and about the size of a today's jaguar . However, the bones were even bigger, which suggests a very muscular build. The front limbs were as big as those of today's lion , the hind limbs were comparatively weaker, which caused a sloping back line. Megantereon had particularly pronounced, flap-like tooth sheaths on the lower jaw, which were supposed to protect the long canine teeth. Megantereon had a short tail, similar to today's lynx .
The largest forms of the genus lived in India and were in some cases estimated at around 90–150 kg, with an average weight of around 120 kg. Medium-sized megantereons are known from the rest of Eurasia and the Pliocene of Europe. The smallest forms come from North America, Africa and the lower Pleistocene of Europe and were previously estimated to be only about 55–70 kg. However, these estimates were based on comparing the size of the fangs with those of today's cats. If, on the other hand, one takes the body skeleton as a basis for comparison, one arrives at significantly higher estimated values. According to this, even smaller forms of megantereon weighed around 100 kg. In agreement with these findings, megantereon of the lower Pleistocene of Europe is given in more recent publications with about 100–160 kg. Large forms must have been even heavier.
Species, Finds, and Distribution
Until recently, it was assumed that megantereon first appeared in North America about 4-5 million years ago and from there to the Old World , where the species was first recorded in Africa 3 to 3.5 million years ago. More recent finds from Africa, which presumably represent Megantereon , are much older at 5.7 and 7 million years, respectively. The new finds therefore suggest that the genus originated in the late Miocene of Africa. In North America, the infamous saber-toothed tiger Smilodon emerged from Megantereon . However, while Smilodon did not disappear until the end of the Pleistocene, Megantereon died out in the middle Pleistocene. In East Africa, the most recent finds are around 1.5 million years old, from South Africa they have been verified by the Elandsfontein site , which is dated 700,000–400,000 years ago. A find from Untermaßfeld in Thuringia shows that this cat was at home in Central Europe 900,000 years ago. This is the latest evidence of megantereon in Europe. In Asia Megantereon survived until around 500,000 years ago, where the genus appeared together with Homo erectus at the well-known Chinese site of Zhoukoudian .
It is not entirely clear whether Megantereon were several species or a single one. The Eurasian and African forms found so far seem with some certainty all to belong to the species Meganteron cultridens . This cannot be said with certainty in the case of the American species, since most of the finds here are very incomplete. On the other hand, due to the extreme differences in size and different characteristics in the dental structure of different regions and epochs, three independent types were proposed. Megantereon cultridens from North America, Asia and the European Pliocene, Megantereon whitei from Africa and the European Lower Pleistocene and Megantereon falconeri from India.
Way of life
The way of life of this species is difficult to reconstruct due to the poor fossil record. Larger cloven-hoofed animals, horses or young rhinos and elephants can be considered as potential prey in Europe.
literature
- Alan Turner, Mauricio Antón: The big cats and their fossil relatives. Columbia University Press, New York NY 1997, ISBN 0-231-10229-1 .
- Jordi Augusti, Mauricio Antón: Mammoths, Sabertooths, and Hominids. 65 Million Years of Mammalian Evolution in Europe. Columbia University Press, New York NY et al. 2002, ISBN 0-231-11640-3 .
proof
- ↑ Paolo Pirasa, Daniele Silvestro, Francesco Carotenuto, Silvia Castiglione, Anastassios Kotsakis, Leonardo Maiorino, Marina Melchionna, Alessandro Mondanaro, Gabriele Sansalone, Carmela Serio, Veronica Anna Vero, Pasquale Raia: Evolution of the sabertooth mandible: A deadly ecomorphological specialization. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 496, 2018, 166–174, doi: 10.1016 / j.palaeo.2018.01.034 .
- ↑ BM Navarro, P. Palmquist: Presence of the African Saber-toothed Felid Megantereon whitei (Broom, 1937) (Mammalia, Carnivora, Machairodontinae) in Apollonia-1 (Mygdonia Basin, Macedonia, Greece). Journal of Archaeological Science 23, 1996, 869-872.
- ^ N. Garcia, E. Virgos: Evolution of community in several carnivore palaeoguilds from the European Pleistocene: the role of intraspecific competition. Lethaia 40, 2007, 33-44.
- Jump up ↑ L. De Bonis, S. Peigne, HT Mackaye, A. Likius, P. Vignaud, M. Brunet: New saber-toothed cats in the Late Miocene of Toros Menalla (Chad). Comptes Rendus Palevol 9 (5), 2010, 221-227.
- ^ Per Christiansen, Jan S. Adolfssen. Osteology and ecology of Megantereon cultridens SE311 (Mammalia; Felidae; Machairodontinae), a sabrecat from the Late Pliocene - Early Pleistocene of Senéze, France . Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2007, 151, 833-884.
