''Megalictis'' is an
extinct 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 large predatory
mustelid
The Mustelidae (; from Latin ''mustela'', weasel) are a family of carnivorous mammals, including weasels, badgers, otters, ferrets, martens, minks and wolverines, among others. Mustelids () are a diverse group and form the largest family ...
s that existed in
North America during the "
cat gap
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 ca ...
" from the Late
Arikareean
The Arikareean North American Stage on the geologic timescale is the North American faunal stage according to the North American Land Mammal Ages chronology (NALMA), typically set from 30,600,000 to 20,800,000 years BP, a period of . It is usuall ...
(Ar4) in the
Miocene
The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...
epoch. It is thought to have resembled a huge
ferret, with a body mass of up to .
History of discovery
The genus ''Megalictis'' was first described by
W. D. Matthew in 1907, and assigned to the family
Mustelidae
The Mustelidae (; from Latin ''mustela'', weasel) are a family of carnivorous mammals, including weasels, badgers, otters, ferrets, martens, minks and wolverines, among others. Mustelids () are a diverse group and form the largest family in th ...
.
[Paleobiology Database] Two similar genera discovered at the same time, ''Aelurocyon'' (Peterson, 1907) and ''Paroligobunis'' (Peterson, 1910) were identified as synonymous with ''Megalictis'' in 1996
[Andersson, p.39] though ''Paroligobunis'' was re-established as a separate genus in 1998.
P. R. Bjork, in 1970, assigned the genus to the subfamily
Mellivorinae, whilst J. A. Baskin reassigned it to
Oligobuninae
''Oligobuninae'' is an extinct subfamily of the family Mustelidae
The Mustelidae (; from Latin ''mustela'', weasel) are a family of carnivorous mammals, including weasels, badgers, otters, ferrets, martens, minks and wolverines, among othe ...
in 1998.
Three species have been identified in the genus: ''M. ferox'', ''M. petersoni'', and ''M. frazieri'', whilst two more, ''Megalictis brevifacies'' and ''Megalictis simplicidens'', have since been determined to be synonymous with ''M. ferox''. Other synonyms of ''M. ferox'' include ''Aelurocyon brevifacies'', ''Brachypsalis simplicidens'' and ''Paroligobunis simplicidens''.
Specimens of ''M. ferox'' have been found at ten sites in
South Dakota
South Dakota (; Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux Native American tribes, who comprise a large porti ...
,
Nebraska
Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the sout ...
and
Wyoming
Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to the s ...
, dated to the
Harrisonian period - from 24.8 to 20.6 million years ago.
The 19 specimens so far identified have a wide range of sizes,
which is believed to be evidence of extreme
sexual dimorphism
Sexual dimorphism is the condition where the sexes of the same animal and/or plant species exhibit different morphological characteristics, particularly characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most an ...
, a phenomenon where males and females of the species will grow to different sizes; a 1996 study rejected the possibility of multiple "morphologically uniform" but differently sized species as unlikely. However, later studies identified significant morphological variation in the joints of the forearms, which would not be consistent with sexual dimorphism. Andersson suggests that the identification of all of these as a single species may need revision.
Description
''Megalictis'' reached the size of a modern
jaguar and was one of
the largest terrestrial mustelids ever recorded.
The skull of ''Megalictis ferox'' was as long as of jaguar but wider, almost as of the
black bear
Black bear or Blackbear may refer to:
Animals
* American black bear (''Ursus americanus''), a North American bear species
* Asian black bear (''Ursus thibetanus''), an Asian bear species
Music
* Black Bear (band), a Canadian First Nations group ...
. It had a powerful bite force, allowing it to crush bones of the large prey, as modern hyenas and jaguars can.
[ ''Megalictis'' surpassed in size other mustelids like '']Ekorus
''Ekorus ekakeran'' is a large, extinct mustelid mammal. Fossils, including largely complete skeletons, are known from the late Miocene of Kenya.
Description
''Ekorus'' reached almost , comparably to a wolf and much bigger than the modern hone ...
'', ''Eomellivora
''Eomellivora'' is an extinct genus of prehistoric mustelids, closely related to the honey badger, known from Eurasia and North America, and tentatively Africa. It was one of the biggest mustelids ever known, bigger and more hypercarnivorous tha ...
'', and ''Plesiogulo
''Plesiogulo'' is a genus of prehistoric carnivore that lived from Miocene to Pliocene of Africa, Eurasia and North America. An ancestral relationship to the wolverine (''Gulo gulo'') was once suggested, but it is no longer considered likely. How ...
''.[ ''Ekorus ekakeran'', another mustelid of the same period found in Africa, is estimated to have been around .] Matthew described it as having short stout legs, with short feet and long non-retractible claws, similar to a modern ferret but about twice the size, and noted that "the teeth indicate an animal fully as predaceous as the wolverine, but the skeleton points to more fossorial habits". Research comparing the joints of the forelegs to modern mammalian carnivores suggests that it waited in ambush and grappled with its prey, rather than hunting it down by pursuit like a modern cheetah
The cheetah (''Acinonyx jubatus'') is a large cat native to Africa and central Iran. It is the fastest land animal, estimated to be capable of running at with the fastest reliably recorded speeds being , and as such has evolved specialized ...
.[Hopkin]
References
Sources
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{{Taxonbar, from=Q6808432
Prehistoric mustelids
Miocene mustelids
Miocene mammals of North America
White River Fauna
Fossil taxa described in 1907
Prehistoric carnivoran genera