Nimravidae
| Nimravidae | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Hoplophoneus primaevus in the State Museum for Natural History Karlsruhe . |
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Eocene to Pliocene | ||||||||||||
| 42 to 7.25 million years | ||||||||||||
| Locations | ||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Nimravidae | ||||||||||||
| Cope , 1880 | ||||||||||||
The family of Nimravidae is an extinct line of feline predators. They originated in the Eocene about 50 million years ago. Originally they were believed to be the ancestors of cats (Felidae), but today they are considered their sister group. Accordingly, they developed their feline characteristics through convergent evolution . Because some species of the Nimravids had powerful saber teeth, which are reminiscent of those of the saber-toothed cats ( Machairodontinae ), but the Nimravidae form a family of their own, they are also known as pseudo- saber-toothed cats . The Barbourofelidae were originally considered a subfamily of the Nimravids, but are now considered a separate family.
Known genera of the Nimravidae:
- Dinaelurus Eaton 1922
- Dinailurictis
- Dinictis Leidy 1854
- Eusmilus Gervais 1876
- Hoplophoneus Cope 1874
- Eofelis Kretzoi 1938
- Maofelis Averianov, et al. 2016
- Nanosmilus Cope 1880
- Nimravus Cope 1879
- Pogonodon Cope 1880
- Quercylurus Ginsburg 1979
literature
- Alan Turner: The big cats and their fossil relatives. Columbia University Press, New York NY 1997, ISBN 0-231-10229-1 .
