''Pristinailurus bristoli'' is a fossil species in the

carnivora Carnivora is a Clade, monophyletic order of Placentalia, placental mammals consisting of the most recent common ancestor of all felidae, cat-like and canidae, dog-like animals, and all descendants of that ancestor. Members of this group are f ...

n family

Ailuridae Ailuridae is a family in the mammal order Carnivora. The family consists of the red panda (the sole living representative) and its extinct relatives. Georges Cuvier first described ''Ailurus'' as belonging to the raccoon family in 1825; this cl ...

, well-represented in the

Hemphillian The Hemphillian 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 10,300,000 to 4,900,000 years BP. It is usually considered ...

deposits at the

Gray Fossil Site The Gray Fossil Site is an Early Pliocene assemblage of fossils dating between 4.5 and 4.9 million years old, located near the town of Gray in Washington County, Tennessee. The site was discovered during a widening project of Tennessee State Route ...

Gray, Tennessee Gray is a census-designated place (CDP) in Washington County, Tennessee, United States and a rural suburb of Johnson City. It is part of the Johnson City Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is a component of the Johnson City– Kingsport&nda ...

. It was significantly larger than the living ''Ailurus'' but probably possessed a weaker bite. Males appear to have been as much as twice the size of females.

References

Ailuridae Miocene musteloids Neogene mammals of North America Prehistoric carnivoran genera {{paleo-carnivora-stub