''Tchadailurus'' is a

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 ...

of machairodontine

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 ...

from the late

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 ...

Chad Chad (; ar, تشاد , ; french: Tchad, ), officially the Republic of Chad, '; ) is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

Etymology

The genus name ''Tchadailurus'' comes from Chad, the country where the original fossils were found, and the Greek ''-ailurus'', which means cat. The species name ''adei'' comes from the word for "small" in Goran, a local language.

Taxonomy

''Tchadailurus adei'' was described based on fossils found in 2018 in a late Miocene-dated locality in Chad. It placed in the subfamily

Machairodontinae 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 until ...

due to having dental features similar to those of later saber-toothed cats, but the relatively primitive features and age of the fossils made it impossible to assign the species to a specific tribe.

Phylogeny

Description

''Tchadailurus'' was described based on a single specimen that consisted of a partial skull and skeleton (including several vertebrae and parts of the legs and paws), likely from a single individual. Similar in size to a lynx, ''Tchadailurus adei'' had a longer tail and the "flattened" canine teeth characteristic of the machairodonts. The primitive features of ''Tchadailurus adei'' indicate that it could be ancestral to later machairodont lineages.

Paleoecology

In the Djurab desert in northern Chad in central Africa, ''Tchadailurus'' seems to have lived alongside fellow machairodonts ''

Lokotunjailurus ''Lokotunjailurus'' is an extinct genus of saber-toothed cats ( Machairodontinae) which existed in Kenya and Chad during the Miocene epoch. ''Lokotunjailurus'' was about as tall as a lioness; about at the shoulder, but was much lighter in buil ...

'', ''

Amphimachairodus ''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 in ...

'' and early representatives of the genus ''

Megantereon ''Megantereon'' was a genus of prehistoric machairodontine saber-toothed cat that lived in North America, Eurasia, and Africa. It may have been the ancestor of ''Smilodon''. Taxonomy Fossil fragments have been found in Africa, Eurasia, and No ...

'' as well as four other cat species. In addition to these other cats, animals such as crocodiles, three-toed horses, fish, monkeys, hippos, aardvarks, turtles, rodents, giraffes, snakes, antelopes, pigs, mongooses, foxes, hyenas, otters, honey badgers and the hominid ''

Sahelanthropus ''Sahelanthropus tchadensis'' is an extinct species of the Homininae (African apes) dated to about , during the Miocene epoch. The species, and its genus ''Sahelanthropus'', was announced in 2002, based mainly on a partial cranium, nicknamed ''T ...

'' dwelled here, providing ample food. Based on these and other fossils, it is theorized that the Djurab was once the shore of a lake, generally forested close to the waters with savannah-like areas some distance away. The great number of cat species in the environment indicates that there was significant room and available niches for multiple species of large felids to coexist.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q55391043 Miocene mammals of Africa Machairodontinae Fossil taxa described in 2018 Prehistoric carnivoran genera