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.
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.
Dinofelis is an extinct genus of machairodontine, usually classified in the tribe Metailurini. It was widespread in Europe, Asia, Africa and North America from 5 million to about 1.2 million years ago. Fossils very similar to Dinofelis from Lothagam range back to around 8 million years ago, in the Late Miocene.
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 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.
Homotherium is an extinct genus of scimitar-toothed cat belonging to the extinct subfamily Machairodontinae that inhabited North America, Eurasia, and Africa during the Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs from around 4 million to 12,000 years ago. It was one of the last surviving members of the subfamily alongside the more famous sabertooth Smilodon, to which it was not particularly closely related. It was a large cat, comparable in size to a lion, functioning as an apex predator in the ecosystems it inhabited. In comparison to Smilodon, the canines of Homotherium were shorter, and it is suggested to have a had different ecology from Smilodon as a pursuit predator adapted to running down large prey in open habitats, with Homotherium also proposed to have likely engaged in cooperative hunting.
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.
Smilodontini is an extinct tribe within the Machairodontinae or "saber-toothed cat" subfamily of the Felidae. The tribe is also known as the "dirk-toothed cats". They were endemic to South America, North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa during the Miocene to Pleistocene, from 10.3 mya—11,000 years ago, existing for approximately 10.3 million years.
Paramachaerodus is an extinct genus of saber-tooth cat of the subfamily Machairodontinae, which was endemic to Eurasia during the Middle and Late Miocene from 15 to 9 Ma. A 2022 phylogenetic analysis suggested that the genus may be polyphyletic.
Xenosmilus is an extinct genus of homotherin machairodontine that was discovered in Florida in 2001. It has one species, Xenosmilus hodsonae.
Thylacosmilus is an extinct genus of saber-toothed metatherian mammals that inhabited South America from the Late Miocene to Pliocene epochs. Though Thylacosmilus looks similar to the "saber-toothed cats", it was not a felid, like the well-known North American Smilodon, but a sparassodont, a group closely related to marsupials, and only superficially resembled other saber-toothed mammals due to convergent evolution. A 2005 study found that the bite forces of Thylacosmilus and Smilodon were low, which indicates the killing-techniques of saber-toothed animals differed from those of extant species. Remains of Thylacosmilus have been found primarily in Catamarca, Entre Ríos, and La Pampa Provinces in northern Argentina.
Megantereon is an extinct genus of prehistoric machairodontine saber-toothed cat that lived in North America, Eurasia, and Africa from the late Pliocene to the Middle Pleistocene. It is a member of the tribe Smilodontini, and closely related to and possibly the ancestor of the famous American sabertooth Smilodon. In comparison to Smilodon it was somewhat smaller, around the size of a jaguar, though it is thought to have had a similar hunting strategy as an ambush predator.
Metailurus is a genus of saber-toothed cat in the family Felidae, and belonging to the tribe Metailurini, which occurred in North America, Eurasia and Africa from the Miocene to the Middle Pleistocene.
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.
Nimravides is a genus of extinct saber-toothed cats that lived in North America during the Late Miocene, between 10.3 and 5.332 Ma. Despite its scientific name, Nimravides does not belong to the Nimravidae, but is a true cat belonging to the family Felidae.
Lokotunjailurus is an extinct genus of saber-toothed cats (Machairodontinae) which existed during the late Miocene and earliest Pliocene epoch and is known from localities in northern, central, eastern and southern Africa. A big cat, it was more slender than comparable recent species and its build suggests cursoriality. It is grouped among a group of similar-looking saber-toothed cats known as the scimitar-tooths.
Amphimachairodus is an extinct genus of large machairodonts. It is also a member of the tribe Homotherini within Machairodontinae and is most closely related to such species as Xenosmilus, Homotherium itself, and Nimravides. It inhabited Eurasia, Northern Africa and North America during the late Miocene epoch.
Taowu is an extinct genus of machairodonts, a type of saber-toothed cat. It lived during the Early Pleistocene about 2.5 million years ago in East Asia. So far, only one skull is known, found in northern China. Based on this, a relatively small representative of the saber-toothed cats can be reconstructed, which only reached the size of a present-day leopard. In its dentition characteristics, it mediates between phylogenetic older forms such as Amphimachairodus and younger members such as Homotherium. The genus was scientifically described in 2022, but the find material was recovered as early as the 1930s.
