Pristifelis

Pristifelis is an extinct genus of feline from the late Miocene. It contains a single species, Pristifelis attica. The first fossil skull of P. attica was excavated near Pikermi in Attica, Greece. Fossils were also excavated near the Moldovan city of Taraclia. It was also discovered in Maragheh, northwestern Iran. P. attica was bigger in body size than a European wildcat but probably smaller than a serval. The species was first described as Felis attica by Johann Andreas Wagner in 1857. Due to size differences, it was proposed as type species for the genus Pristifelis proposed in 2012.

Pristifelis

Skye McDavid · 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
FelinaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Felidae
Life habit
scansorialPBDB, for Felidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At most 6.6 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 11.63 Mya and 5.09 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Miocene — about 11 of 11 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 11 occurrencesPliocene12–12 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences10–10 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences10–9.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences9.9–9.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences9.6–9.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences9.4–9.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences9.1–8.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences8.9–8.6 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences8.6–8.4 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences8.4–8.1 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences8.1–7.9 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences7.9–7.6 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences7.6–7.4 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences7.4–7.1 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences7.1–6.9 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences6.9–6.6 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences6.6–6.3 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences6.3–6.1 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences6.1–5.8 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences5.8–5.6 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences5.6–5.3 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences5.3–5.1 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences5.1–4.8 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences12.1 Mya4.6 Mya

11 occurrences of Pristifelis 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

11 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

2 formations

facies à Congeria — 45.05°N, 7.93°EYatagan — 37.34°N, 28.24°E

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The named rock units Pristifelis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 8 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Pristifelis and its relatives

Miocene

Where Pristifelis and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

273 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 9 sites for Pristifelis, 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

10 references

Each of the 11 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 content1

Picture of Pristifelis

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

No 3D scan of Pristifelis 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 itFelinae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Salesa et al. 2012