''Dinaelurus'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

of the

Nimravidae 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 (family Felidae), the nimravids are generally considered ...

, an extinct

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

feliform Feliformia is a suborder within the order Carnivora consisting of "cat-like" carnivorans, including cats (large and small), hyenas, mongooses, viverrids, and related taxa. Feliformia stands in contrast to the other suborder of Carnivora, Cani ...

mammalian

carnivore A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant whose food and energy requirements derive from animal tissues (mainly muscle, fat and other s ...

s, also known as "false

saber-toothed cat Machairodontinae is an extinct subfamily of carnivoran mammals of the family Felidae (true cats). They were found in Asia, Africa, North America, South America, and Europe from the Miocene to the Pleistocene, living from about 16 million ...

s". Assigned to subfamily

Nimravinae The Nimravinae are a subfamily of the Nimravidae, an extinct family of feliform mammalian carnivores sometimes known as false saber-toothed cats. They were endemic to North America, Europe, and Asia from the Middle Eocene through the Late Mi ...

, ''Dinaelurus'' was endemic to North America during the

Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''ēṓs'', " ...

- Oligocene epochs (30.8—20.6 mya), existing for approximately .

Taxonomy

''Dinaelurus'' was named by George Francis Eaton (1922). Its type is ''Dinaelurus crassus''. It was assigned to ''Nimravinae'' by Flynn and Galiano (1982) and Bryant (1991); and to ''Nimravidae'' by Eaton (1922) and Larry D. Martin (1998).Martin, Larry D. 1998. "Nimravidae." In Christine M. Janis, Kathleen M. Scott, Louis L. Jacobs (eds.), ''Evolution of Tertiary Mammals of North America''. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. 2 volumes (1998-2008).

Fossil distribution

One specimen was found in the

John Day Formation The John Day Formation is a series of rock strata exposed in the Picture Gorge district of the John Day River basin and elsewhere in north-central Oregon in the United States. The Picture Gorge exposure lies east of the Blue Mountain uplift, whi ...

in Oregon and was described by Eaton in 1922.

Description

''Dinaelurus'' had a skull extremely broad for its length and had conical teeth; it could exhibit little or no development of sabertooth features and had more rounded cheek teeth with no serrated ridges. It had a relatively gracile skeleton. Martin hypothesizes that it had digitigrade feet.Martin 1998, p. 228.

Behavior

It is believed that ''Dinaelurus'' was a

cursorial A cursorial organism is one that is adapted specifically to run. An animal can be considered cursorial if it has the ability to run fast (e.g. cheetah) or if it can keep a constant speed for a long distance (high endurance). "Cursorial" is often us ...

predator, meaning it ran down its prey. This is suggested by the nimravid's short face and large nostrils, similar to those of a cheetah, which is also a cursorial predator, as Martin suggests.

Sources

* https://web.archive.org/web/20080620030107/http://home.earthlink.net/~ratha13/id5.html * https://archive.today/20130201060334/http://www.rathascourage.com/research.html Nimravidae Oligocene feliforms Aquitanian genus extinctions Oligocene mammals of North America Prehistoric carnivoran genera {{paleo-carnivora-stub