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Pseudaelurus Temporal range: Miocene PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Pseudaelurus jawbone from the Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart, Germany
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Suborder:	Feliformia
Family:	Felidae
Genus:	†Pseudaelurus Gervais, 1850
Type species
†Pseudaelurus quadridentatus (Blainville, 1843) sensu Gervais, 1850
Other Species
†P. cuspidatus Wang et al., 1998 †P. guangheensis Cao et al., 1990
Synonyms
P. quadridentatus Felis quadridentata Blainville, 1843

Pseudaelurus is a prehistoric cat that lived in Europe, Asia and North America in the Miocene between approximately twenty and eight million years ago. It is considered to be a paraphyletic grade ancestral to living felines and pantherines as well as the extinct machairodonts (saber-tooths), and is a successor to Proailurus. It originated from Eurasia and was the first cat to reach North America, when it entered the continent at about 18.5 Ma ending a 'cat-gap' of 7 million years. The slender proportions of the animal, together with its short, viverrid-like legs, suggest that it may have been an agile climber of trees.

Species and distribution

Pseudaelurus quadridentatus weighed about 30 kg (66 lb) and was approximately the size of a cougar.

Pseudaelurus guangheensis from the middle Miocene of Gansu (China) and Pseudaelurus cuspidatus from the middle Miocene of Xinjiang (China) are reported.

Taxonomy and phylogeny

• †Pseudaelurus
• †Styriofelis
• †Hyperailurictis
• now assigned to †Afrosmilus within the family †Barbourofelidae

Traditionally, all the Pseudaelurus-grade species from Europe, Asia, and North America have been assigned to a single genus, even though the paraphyletic nature of the group has often been noted. Several authorities have split Pseudaelurus into separate genera or subgenera, including Hyperailurictis, Styriofelis, Miopanthera and Schizailurus. These different groups of Pseudaelurus-grade felids are often considered to have given rise to later felid lineages.

The genus Styriofelis was originally proposed in 1929 by Kretzoi for the species Pseudaelurus turnaeunsis. Kretzoi also proposed the genus Hyperailurictis for the North American species Pseudaelurus intrepidus, and Miopanthera for Ps. lorteti. In 1964, Beaumont elaborated on Kretzoi's proposal and split Pseudaelurus into three separate genera: Pseudaelurus for the European Ps. quadridentatus, Schizailurus for Ps. lorteti, and Hyperailurictis for Ps. intrepidus.

Taxonomic history

In 1843, the paleontologist H.M. de Blainville published a description of a felid cranium and lower jaw fragment from Sansan, France. He assigned these fossils to a new species, Felis quadridentata. The cranium was later reassigned to another species, but in 1850 the lower jaw fragment was assigned to a new genus by Paul Gervais as Pseudaelurus quadridentatus, due to having certain primitive features.

In 1858, Joseph Leidy described the species Felis intrepidus, from North America, and reassigned the species as Pseudaelurus intrepidus in 1869. After that discovery, another eight species of Pseudaelurus would be described in North America, but only five are still considered valid.

In 1872, Henri Filhol described the species Pseudaelurus edwardsi from France, but the species was reassigned to the nimravid genus Eofelis in 2000.

In 1882, a second species from Europe was described as Pseudaelurus turauensis, and a third species, Pseudaelurus lorteti, in 1899. The fourth European species, Pseudaelurus romieviensis, was described in 1934. In addition, the species Pseudaelurus transitorius was described in 1892, but most later authors considered it a synonym of P. turnaeunsis.

In 1914, fossils from Africa were described and assigned to the species Pseudaelurus africanus. However, the species was later reassigned, first to the genus Metailurus, and then finally to Afrosmilus.

In Asia, the first description of Pseudaelurus was in 1910, when a fragmentary fossil was assigned to Pseudaelurus chinjiensis; however, it was reassigned in 1915 to the new genus Sivaelurus. The next appearance of Pseudaelurus-grade felids in Asia wasn't until 1986, when a lower jaw fragment and some dental fragments were assigned to the species Pseudaelurus lorteti. In 1990, the species Pseudaelurus guangheensis was described. In 1998, a second Asian species, Pseudaelurus cuspidatus, was also described. Both of the Asian species are known only from fragmentary fossils.

In 1998, while measuring fragmentary fossils from the Hsanda-Gol locality in Mongolia, Robert Hunt referred a lower jaw fragment to Proailurus sp.; while this was reassigned to the nimravid genus Eofelis in 1999 instead, a 2004 review of felid material from other localities in Mongolia suggested that it could belong to Pseudaelurus cuspidatus instead, on basis of having similar features. However, the Hsanda-Gol specimen is dated back to the Oligocene, while Pseudaelurus cuspidatus is found solely in Miocene-aged localities. The same paper also described a pair of fragments (a lower jaw fragment and a metapodial) and attributed them to Pseudaelurus sp.

In 2010, a review of the Felidae as a whole suggested that Pseudaelurus be split into three genera: Hyperailurictis for the five North American species, Styriofelis for two of the European species (P. lorteti and P. turnaunensis), and Pseudaelurus sensu stricto for P. quadridentatus. The status of P. romieviensis, P. guangheensis, and P. cuspidatus was given as uncertain. In addition, Miopanthera and Schizailurus were recognized as junior synonyms of Styriofelis.

In 2012, a new species Styriofelis vallesiensis was described based on a specimen found in Spain. However, a review of the species in 2017 concluded that it was sufficiently different from other Styriofelis species as to require a separate genus. It was thus reassigned to the new genus Leptofelis as Leptofelis vallesiensis.

In 2017, a review of the species Felis pamiri, which was named based on a snout fragment from Turkey and dated to the late Miocene, concluded that Felis pamiri and Pseudaelurus lorteti were likely closely related to each other, and ancestral to the Panthera lineage. Both species were reassigned to the genus Miopanthera as Miopanthera lorteti and Miopanthera pamiri.

Phylogeny

The following cladogram is based on Piras et al. (2013) and illustrates the three more derived lineages that evolved from "Pseudaelurus" species.

References

1. Tedford, R. H.; Galusha, T.; Skinner, M. F.; Taylor, B. E.; Fields, R. W.; Macdonald, J. R.; Rensberger, J. M.; Webb, S. D.; Whistler, D.P. (1987). "Faunal succession and biochronology of the Arikareean through Hemphillian interval (late Oligocene through earliest Pliocene epochs) in North America". In Woodburne, M. O. (ed.). Cenozoic mammals of North America: Geochronology and biostratigraphy. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 153–210. ISBN 0-520-05392-3.
2. ^ Rothwell, Tom (2003). "Phylogenetic systematics of North American Pseudaelurus (Carnivora: Felidae)" (PDF). American Museum Novitates (3403): 1–64. doi:10.1206/0003-0082(2003)403<0001:psonap>2.0.co;2. hdl:2246/2829. ISSN 0003-0082. S2CID 67753626.
3. Turner, Alan; Antón, Mauricio (1997). The Big Cats and their fossil relatives. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-10228-3.
4. "Pseudaelurus". paleobiodb.org. The data were downloaded from the Paleobiology Database on June 27, 2017 using the taxon name 'Pseudaelurus'. Retrieved June 27, 2017.
5. Kretzoi, M. (1929a). "Feliden-Studien". A Magyar Királyi Földtani Intézet Hazinyomdaja. 24: 1–22.
6. Kretzoi, M. (1929b). "Materialien zur phylogenetischen Klassifikation der Aeluroideen". Int Cong Zool Budapest. 10: 1293–1355.
7. Kretzoi, M. (1938). "Die Raubtiere von Gombaszög nebst einer Übersicht der Gesamtfauna". Ann Mus Nat Hungar. 31: 88–157.
8. ^ Werdelin, Lars; O'Brien, Stephen J.; Johnson, Warren E.; Yamaguchi, Nobuyuki (2010). "Phylogeny and evolution of cats (Felidae)". In Macdonald, D.W.; Loveridge, A.J. (eds.). Biology and Conservation of Wild Felids. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
9. Gervais, Paul (1850). "Zoologie et paléontologie françaises. Nouvelles recherches sur les animaux vertébrés dont on trouve les ossements enfouis dans les sol de le France et sur leur comparaison avec les espèces propres aux autres regions du globe". Zoologie et Paléontologie Françaises. 8: 1–271.
10. Peigné, Stéphane (2000). "A new species of Eofelis (Carnivora: Nimravidae) from the Phosphorites of Quercy, France". Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences, Série IIA. 330 (9): 653–658. Bibcode:2000CRASE.330..653P. doi:10.1016/s1251-8050(00)00199-3.
11. Morales, Jorge; Pickford, M.; Salesa, Manuel J. (2008). "Creodonta and Carnivora from the Early Miocene of the Northern Sperrgebiet, Namibia". Memoir of the Geological Survey of Namibia. 20: 291–310.
12. ^ Rothwell, Tom (2004). "Chapter 12: New Felid Material from the Ulaan Tologoi Locality, Loh Formation (Early Miocene) of Mongolia". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 285: 157–165. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.616.5669. doi:10.1206/0003-0090(2004)285<0157:c>2.0.co;2. S2CID 85951519.
13. Cao, Z.; Du, H; Zhao, Q.; Cheng, J (1990). "Discovery of the middle Miocene fossil mammals in Guanghe District, Gansu and their stratigraphic significance". Geoscience. 4: 16–32.
14. Wang, X.; Ye, J.; Meng, J.; Wu, W; Liu, L.; Bi, S. (1998). "Carnivora from middle Miocene of northern Junggar Basin, Xinjiang Autonomous Region, China". Vertebrata PalAsiatica. 36: 218–243.
15. Salesa, Manuel J.; Antón, Mauricio; Morales, Jorge; Peigné, Stéphane (2012). "Systematics and phylogeny of the small felines (Carnivora, Felidae) from the Late Miocene of Europe: a new species of Felinae from the Vallesian of Batallones (MN 10, Madrid, Spain)". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 10 (1): 87–102. doi:10.1080/14772019.2011.566584. ISSN 1477-2019. S2CID 84912711.
16. Salesa, Manuel J.; Siliceo, Gema; Antón, Mauricio; Peigné, Stéphane; Morales, Jorge (2017). "Functional and Systematic Implications of the Postcranial Anatomy of a Late Miocene Feline (Carnivora, Felidae) from Batallones-1 (Madrid, Spain)". Journal of Mammalian Evolution. 26: 1–31. doi:10.1007/s10914-017-9414-9. hdl:10261/225344. S2CID 19719645.
17. Geraads, Denis; Peigné, Stéphane (2017). "Re-appraisal of 'Felis' pamiri Ozansoy 1959 (Carnivora, Felidae) from the upper Miocene of Turkey: the earliest pantherin cat?". Journal of Mammalian Evolution. 24 (4): 415–425. doi:10.1007/s10914-016-9349-6. S2CID 207195894.
18. Piras, P.; Maiorino, L.; Teresi, L.; Meloro, C.; Lucci, F.; Kotsakis, T.; Raia, P. (2013). "Bite of the Cats: Relationships between Functional Integration and Mechanical Performance as Revealed by Mandible Geometry". Systematic Biology. 62 (6): 878–900. doi:10.1093/sysbio/syt053. ISSN 1063-5157. PMID 23925509.

• Christiansen, Per (2008). "Phylogeny of the great cats (Felidae: Pantherinae), and the influence of fossil taxa and missing characters". Cladistics. 24 (6): 977–992. doi:10.1111/j.1096-0031.2008.00226.x. PMID 34892880. S2CID 84497516.

• Prehistoric felids
• Miocene felids
• Tortonian extinctions
• Miocene mammals of Europe
• Miocene mammals of North America
• Prehistoric carnivoran genera
• Burdigalian first appearances
• Fossil taxa described in 1850