Megantereon

Megantereon is an extinct genus of prehistoric machairodontine saber-toothed cat that lived in Eurasia, Africa and possibly North America from the late Pliocene to the Middle Pleistocene, first described by George Cuvier in 1824. It is a member of the tribe Smilodontini, and closely related to and possibly the ancestor of the more widely-known American sabertooth Smilodon, with which it shared greatly elongated saber canine teeth. In comparison to Smilodon, Megantereon was somewhat smaller, around the size of a jaguar, although it is thought to have had a similar hunting strategy as an ambush predator. Megantereon began to decline towards the end of the Early Pleistocene, becoming extinct in Africa first around 1.3 Ma and later in Europe around 1 Ma, surviving latest in East Asia into the Middle Pleistocene until sometime around 780-350,000 years ago. Environmental change, changes in prey availability, and competition from early humans have been suggested as reasons for its extinction.

Megantereon

Ghedoghedo · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
SmilodontiniPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Felidae
Life habit
scansorialPBDB, for Felidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 4.5 million years on record.

The record covers at least 5.333 Mya to 774 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 11.63 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 5 of 71 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 25 of 71 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 41 of 71 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 71 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10–9.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.7–9.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences9.3–8.9 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences8.9–8.5 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences8.5–8.1 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences8.1–7.7 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences7.7–7.3 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences7.3–6.9 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences6.9–6.5 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences6.5–6.1 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences6.1–5.7 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences5.7–5.3 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences5.3–4.9 Mya — about 2 occurrences4.9–4.4 Mya — about 2 occurrences4.4–4.0 Mya — about 2 occurrences4.0–3.6 Mya — about 3 occurrences3.6–3.2 Mya — about 6 occurrences3.2–2.8 Mya — about 6 occurrences2.8–2.4 Mya — about 7 occurrences2.4–2.0 Mya — about 10 occurrences2.0–1.6 Mya — about 10 occurrences1.6–1.2 Mya — about 6 occurrences1.2–809 ka Mya — about 6 occurrences809 ka–404 ka Mya — about 4 occurrences404 ka–0 Mya — about 3 occurrences5.333 Mya774 ka12.1 Mya0 Mya

71 occurrences of Megantereon 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

71 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

24 formations

Koobi Fora — 4.07°N, 36.37°EKoobi Fora — 4.24°N, 36.26°EKoobi Fora — 3.90°N, 36.24°EKoobi Fora — 3.92°N, 36.45°EKoobi Fora — 4.31°N, 36.28°EKoobi Fora — 4.31°N, 36.22°EHadar — 11.13°N, 40.59°EKromdraai — 26.00°S, 27.45°EKromdraai — 26.00°S, 27.75°ESterkfontein — 26.02°S, 27.73°EPeace River — 27.90°N, 81.80°WPeace River — 27.68°N, 81.95°WVogel River Series — 3.22°S, 35.21°EVogel River Series — 3.13°S, 35.13°ESwartkrans — 26.02°S, 27.72°ENagri — 32.77°N, 72.50°EBone Valley — 27.90°N, 81.80°WGlenns Ferry — 42.80°N, 114.90°WRexroad — 37.20°N, 100.30°WMatabaietu — 10.55°N, 40.58°ENachukui — 3.08°N, 35.83°EMakapansgat — 24.20°S, 28.95°EUSNO — 5.35°N, 36.17°EKuruksai suite — 38.31°N, 69.67°EPlatanochori — 40.57°N, 23.47°EBaza — 37.72°N, 2.47°WYuanmou — 24.87°N, 100.94°E'Ubeidiya — 32.68°N, 35.57°ESagantole — 10.52°N, 40.47°EGuadix — 37.42°N, 3.17°WToros Menalla — 12.44°N, 15.15°EGerakarou — 40.52°N, 23.44°E

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The named rock units Megantereon has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 30 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Megantereon and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Megantereon and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

905 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 70 sites for Megantereon, 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

51 references

Each of the 71 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. 39 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 content1

Picture of Megantereon

Credit
Ghedoghedo
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Megantereon was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

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 itSmilodontini through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Croizet and Jobert 1828