''Sansanosmilus'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

carnivorous 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 sof ...

mammal Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...

of the family

Barbourofelidae 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 (16.9—9.0 million years ago) and existed for a ...

(false saber-tooth cats) endemic to

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, which lived during the

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first 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 means "less recen ...

, 13.6—11.1 mya, existing for approximately .

Taxonomy

Comparison_Sansanosmilus_palmidens_-_Necromanis_franconica

''Sansanosmilus'' is a member of the family

, a group of feliform carnivorans related to either felids or nimravids. It had short legs, was very muscular and had a long tail. ''Sansanosmilus'' was 1.5 m long and probably weighed around 80 kg. In 1961, paleontologist L. Ginsburg concluded that ''Sansanosmilus'' was possessed of a plantigrade walking stance, after studying its foot bones and comparing it with those of the true

felid Felidae () is the family of mammals in the order Carnivora colloquially referred to as cats, and constitutes a clade. A member of this family is also called a felid (). The term "cat" refers both to felids in general and specifically to the dom ...

Pseudaelurus ''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 ...

'' from the same site. This is different from later barbourofelids, which are believed to have had semi-plantigrade or semi-digitigrade stances. The type species, ''Sansanosmilus palmidens'', is known from fossils from the Orleanian and Astaracian stages in France. Although ''

Albanosmilus ''Albanosmilus'' is an extinct genus of the family Barbourofelidae. It was previously thought to belong to the false sabre-toothed cat family Nimravidae Nimravidae is an extinct family of carnivorans, sometimes known as false saber-toothed c ...

'' was seen as a junior synonym of ''Sansanosmilus'' from the 1970s onwards, Robles ''et al.'' (2013) demonstrated that the type species of ''Albanosmilus'', ''S. jourdani'' (which they considered to be a senior synonym of ''S. vallesiensis''), is more closely related to ''Barbourofelis'' than to the type species of ''Sansanosmilus'' and thus generically distinct. Wang et al. (2020) agreed with Robles et al. (2013) in recovering ''Albanosmilus'' as closer to ''Barbourofelis'' than to ''Sansanosmilus''.Wang, X., White, S., & Guan, J. (2020). A new genus and species of sabretooth, Oriensmilus liupanensis (Barbourofelinae, Nimravidae, Carnivora), from the middle Miocene of China suggests barbourofelines are nimravids, not felids. JOURNAL OF SYSTEMATIC PALAEONTOLOGY, 18(9), 783-803. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14772019.2019.1691066 Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0g62362j

References

Barbourofelidae Miocene carnivorans Tortonian extinctions Prehistoric mammals of Europe Prehistoric mammals of Asia Serravallian first appearances Fossil taxa described in 1929 Prehistoric carnivoran genera {{paleo-carnivora-stub