Felidae is the family of mammals in the order Carnivora colloquially referred to as cats. A member of this family is also called a felid.
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.
The Knife Tooth Cat (Machairodus) is a genus of large machairodont or ''saber-toothed cat'' that lived in Africa, Eurasia and North America during the late Miocene. It is the animal from which the subfamily Machairodontinae gets its name and has since become a wastebasket taxon over the years as many genera of sabertooth cat have been and are still occasionally lumped into it.
Smilodon is an extinct genus of felids. It is one of the best known saber-toothed predators and prehistoric mammals. Although commonly known as the saber-toothed tiger, it was not closely related to the tiger or other modern cats, belonging to the extinct subfamily Machairodontinae, with an estimated date of divergence from the ancestor of living cats around 20 million years ago. Smilodon was one of the last surviving machairodonts alongside the distantly related Homotherium. Smilodon lived in the Americas during the Pleistocene epoch. The genus was named in 1842 based on fossils from Brazil; the generic name means "scalpel" or "two-edged knife" combined with "tooth". Three species are recognized today: S. gracilis, S. fatalis, and S. populator. The two latter species were probably descended from S. gracilis, which itself probably evolved from Megantereon. The hundreds of specimens obtained from the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles constitute the largest collection of Smilodon fossils.
A saber-tooth is any member of various extinct groups of predatory therapsids, predominantly carnivoran mammals, that are characterized by long, curved saber-shaped canine teeth which protruded from the mouth when closed. Saber-toothed mammals have been found almost worldwide from the Eocene epoch to the end of the Pleistocene epoch.
Nimravidae is an extinct family of carnivorans, sometimes known as false saber-toothed cats, whose fossils are found in North America and Eurasia. Not considered to belong to the true cats, the nimravids are generally considered closely related and classified as a distinct family in the suborder Feliformia. Fossils have been dated from the Middle Eocene through the Late Miocene epochs, spanning about 33.2 million years.
Machairodontinae is an extinct subfamily of carnivoran mammals of the family Felidae. They were found in Asia, Africa, North America, South America, and Europe, with the earliest species known from the Middle Miocene, with the last surviving species becoming extinct around Late Pleistocene-Holocene transition.
Metailurini is an extinct taxonomic tribe of large saber-toothed cats that lived in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America from the Miocene to the Pleistocene.
Dinictis is a genus of the Nimravidae, an extinct family of feliform mammalian carnivores, also known as "false saber-toothed cats". Assigned to the subfamily Nimravinae, Dinictis was endemic to North America from the Late Eocene to Early Miocene epochs, existing for about 16.8 million years.
Nimravus is an extinct genus of "false" saber-toothed cat in the family Nimravidae known from North America, Asia and Europe during the late Eocene and Oligocene epochs 35.3—26.3 mya, existing for approximately 9 million years. Not closely related to true saber-toothed cats, they evolved a similar form through parallel evolution. Fossils have been uncovered in the western U.S. from Oregon to southern California and Nebraska.
Eusmilus is a prehistoric genus of nimravid that lived in Europe and North America during the Late Eocene to Early Oligocene epochs.
Hoplophoneus is an extinct genus of the family Nimravidae, endemic to North America during the Late Eocene to Early Oligocene epochs, existing for approximately 6 million years.
Barbourofelidae is an extinct family of carnivorans of the suborder Feliformia, sometimes known as false saber-toothed cats, that lived in North America, Eurasia and Africa during the Miocene epoch and existed for about 7.9 million years. Thought to be an independent lineage from the Nimravidae and Machairodontinae, which had all attained elongated canines, recent research argues that it may be a subfamily of the Nimravidae, extending its biochronological range into the Miocene, although this issue is not yet fully resolved.
Feliformia is a suborder within the order Carnivora consisting of "cat-like" carnivorans, including cats, hyenas, mongooses, viverrids, and related taxa. Feliformia stands in contrast to the other suborder of Carnivora, Caniformia.
Dinaelurus is a genus of the Nimravidae, an extinct family of feliform mammalian carnivores, also known as "false saber-toothed cats". Assigned to the subfamily Nimravinae, Dinaelurus was endemic to North America during the Oligocene epoch, existing for approximately 10.2 million years.
Quercylurus major is an extinct, cat-like nimravid carnivora from the early Oligocene of France. Its fossils were found in Early Oligocene strata in Quercy. Q. major was possibly the largest nimravid ever known, as its fossils suggest it was similar in size to the modern-day lion.
The cat gap is a period in the fossil record of approximately 25 million to 18.5 million years ago in which there are few fossils of cats or cat-like species found in North America. The cause of the "cat gap" is disputed, but it may have been caused by changes in the climate, changes in the habitat and environmental ecosystem, the increasingly hypercarnivorous trend of the cats, volcanic activity, evolutionary changes in dental morphology of the Canidae species present in North America, or a periodicity of extinctions called van der Hammen cycles.
Asiavorator is an extinct genus of civet-like carnivoran belonging in the family Stenoplesictidae. It was endemic to Asia and lived during the Eocene and Oligocene epochs.
Nanosmilus is a nimravid from the Oligocene of Nebraska. As a member of Feliformia, it is related to the superficially similar-appearing true cats. As such, it and nimravid genera in general are often referred to as false saber-toothed cats. No larger than a small bobcat, it is the smallest known saber-toothed mammal currently recognized by science. It is most closely related to its fellow nimravid Eusmilus.
Sivasmilus is a fossil genus of barbourofelid containing only a single species, Sivasmilus copei. It is known from only a single specimen, a partial mandible collected from the Chinji Formation in the Lower Siwaliks in Pakistan, estimated to be from the Miocene. The fossil was originally described in 1915 when it was assigned to the fossil feline Sivaelurus chinjiensis, but was used as the basis of a new genus and species in 1929 by Hungarian paleontologist Miklós Kretzoi. Sivasmilus copei was a relatively small, cat-like animal.
