Proailurus
| Proailurus | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Skull of Proailurus lemanensis |
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Upper Oligocene to Lower Miocene | ||||||||||||
| 30 to approx. 20 million years | ||||||||||||
| Locations | ||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Proailurus | ||||||||||||
| Filhol , 1879 | ||||||||||||
Proailurus is an extinctgenus of predators from the late Oligocene and early Miocene of Eurasia, which was previously considered the oldest direct ancestor of cats. Newer phylogenetic studies, on the other hand, classify them as the basal ancestors of various feline predators.
Proailurus was slightly larger than today's house cat with a reconstructed shoulder height of about 38 cm. With the species Proailurus lemanensis it was first detected in 30 million year old deposits from France.
A likely descendant is Pseudaelurus , who first appeared about 20 million years ago.
Individual evidence
Commons : Proailurus - collection of images, videos and audio files
- ↑ Tom Rothwell: Phylogenetic Systematics of North American Pseudaelurus (Carnivora: Felidae). In: American Museum Novitates. American Museum of Natural History, No. 2403, New York 2003, pp. 1-64 online .
- ^ Gina D. Wesley-Hunt, John J. Flynn: Phylogeny of the Carnivora: basal relationships among the Carnivoramorphans, and assessment of the position of 'Miacoidea' relative to Carnivora . In: Journal of Systematic Palaeontology . tape 3 , 2005, p. 1–28 , doi : 10.1111 / j.1096-3642.2005.00194.x .
- ^ Alan Turner: The Big Cats and their fossil relatives . Columbia University Press, New York 1997, ISBN 0-231-10228-3 , pp. 25 .