Adelphailurus

Adelphailurus is an extinct genus of metailurin machairodontine (saber-toothed) cat that inhabited western North America during the late Miocene and early Pliocene. It is monotypic, containing only the species Adelphailurus kansensis.

Adelphailurus

Noles1984 · Public Domain · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
MetailuriniPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB
Life habit
scansorialPBDB, for Felidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At most 4.7 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 9.4 Mya and 4.7 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Miocene — about 4 of 5 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 5 occurrencesPliocene9.5–9.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.3–9.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences9.1–8.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences8.9–8.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences8.8–8.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences8.6–8.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences8.4–8.2 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences8.2–8.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences8.0–7.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences7.8–7.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences7.6–7.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences7.4–7.2 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences7.2–7.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences7.0–6.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences6.9–6.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences6.7–6.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences6.5–6.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences6.3–6.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences6.1–5.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.9–5.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.7–5.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.5–5.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.3–5.2 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.2–5.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.0–4.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.8–4.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.9 Mya4.2 Mya

5 occurrences of Adelphailurus on record, most of them in the Miocene. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

5 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

3 formations

Ogallala — 36.70°N, 101.40°WQuiburis — 32.50°N, 110.60°WBig Sandy — 34.70°N, 113.40°W

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The named rock units Adelphailurus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Adelphailurus and its relatives

Miocene

Where Adelphailurus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

90 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 5 sites for Adelphailurus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

5 references

Each of the 5 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Adelphailurus

Credit
Noles1984
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Laser scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Adelphailurus kansensis · ypm:vp:YPM VP 014162

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itMetailurini through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Hibbard 1934