Homotherium

Homotherium is an extinct genus of scimitar-toothed cat belonging to the extinct subfamily Machairodontinae that inhabited North America, Eurasia, and Africa, as well as possibly South America during the Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs from around 4 million to 12,000 years ago. A probable descendant of Amphimachairodus, it was one of the last surviving members of Machairodontinae alongside the more famous sabertooth Smilodon, to which it was not particularly closely related. It was a large cat, comparable in size to a lion with a body mass of up to 200 kilograms (440 lb), functioning as an apex predator in the ecosystems it inhabited. It had an elongate neck and relatively elongate legs, a relatively short back and a very short tail, with the mummy of a H. latidens cub of Late Pleistocene age found in Siberia having a plain dark brown coat colour. In comparison to Smilodon, the canines of Homotherium were shorter, though still longer than those of living cats, and it is suggested to have had a different ecology from Smilodon as a moderate speed endurance pursuit predator adapted to running down large prey, such as antelope, equines, bovines, and juvenile mammoths in open habitats, with Homotherium also proposed to have likely engaged in cooperative hunting.

Homotherium

Skb8721 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
HomotheriinaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Felidae
Life habit
scansorialPBDB, for Felidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria
Mass
190 kgWikidata

Time the record covers

At least 7.1 million years on record.

The record covers at least 7.246 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 23.04 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Oligocene — about 0 of 151 occurrencesMiocene — about 3 of 151 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 51 of 151 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 97 of 151 occurrencesPleistocene24–23 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences10–9.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences9.4–8.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences8.6–7.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences7.8–7.1 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences7.1–6.3 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences6.3–5.5 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences5.5–4.7 Mya — about 5 occurrences4.7–3.9 Mya — about 11 occurrences3.9–3.1 Mya — about 18 occurrences3.1–2.4 Mya — about 24 occurrences2.4–1.6 Mya — about 29 occurrences1.6–785 ka Mya — about 20 occurrences785 ka–0 Mya — about 41 occurrences7.246 Mya129 ka23.5 Mya0 Mya

151 occurrences of Homotherium on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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

151 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

30 formations

Koobi Fora — 3.98°N, 36.32°EKoobi Fora — 4.07°N, 36.37°EKoobi Fora — 3.90°N, 36.24°EKoobi Fora — 3.75°N, 36.36°EKoobi Fora — 4.31°N, 36.28°EKoobi Fora — 3.91°N, 36.38°EVogel River Series — 3.20°S, 35.21°EVogel River Series — 3.25°S, 35.20°EVogel River Series — 3.13°S, 35.13°EVarswater — 32.98°S, 18.15°ENachukui — 3.08°N, 35.83°ENachukui — 3.90°N, 35.71°ENachukui — 4.17°N, 35.74°ENachukui — 3.87°N, 35.76°EHadar — 11.13°N, 40.59°EGlenns Ferry — 43.60°N, 116.80°WGlenns Ferry — 43.00°N, 118.00°WLove — 31.50°N, 105.20°WMcPherson — 38.30°N, 97.60°WMakapansgat — 24.20°S, 28.95°ECromer Forest Bed — 52.46°N, 1.73°ECromer Forest Bed — 52.94°N, 1.25°E? Tulare — 35.30°N, 118.50°WTamiami — 27.30°N, 80.80°WLong Pine — 42.38°N, 98.23°WBlanco — 33.70°N, 101.10°WManix — 34.80°N, 117.00°WTurlock Lake — 37.06°N, 120.20°WSeymour — 33.75°N, 99.50°WBermont — 27.70°N, 82.50°WAmerican Falls Lake Bed E — 42.80°N, 112.90°WChorora — 10.67°N, 40.50°ELukeino — 0.50°N, 35.67°EWembere-Manonga — 4.03°S, 33.77°EUSNO — 5.35°N, 36.17°ESterkfontein — 26.02°S, 27.73°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Homotherium has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 6 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 96 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Homotherium and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Homotherium and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

1,616 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 149 sites for Homotherium, 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

95 references

Each of the 151 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. 83 further references are not listed. 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 content3

Picture of Homotherium

Credit
Skb8721
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Structured light scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Homotherium serum · lacm:hc:70001

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itHomotheriina through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Fabrini 1890