Machairodontinae

	Email		Print
	Bookmark		Link

Machairodontinae

The Machairodontinae form a subfamily of the Felidae

Felidae

Felidae is the family of the cats; a member of this family is called a felid. Felids are the most strictly Carnivore of the sixteen mammal families in the order Carnivora....
(true cats). It contains some of the extinct cats commonly known as "saber-toothed cat

Saber-toothed cat

The terms sabre-toothed cat, sabretooth, and sabre-toothed tiger describe numerous species, mainly in the families Felidae , Barbourofelidae, and Nimravidae, but also including two marsupial families, that lived during various parts of the Cenozoic Era and evolved their sabre-toothed characteristics entirely independently....
s", including the famed genus Smilodon
Smilodon

Smilodon , sometimes called sabre-toothed cat, is an extinction genus of large Machairodontinae saber-toothed cats that lived between approximately 2.5 million to 10,000 years ago in North America and South America....
as well as other cats with only minor increases in the size and length of their maxillary canine

Maxillary canine

The maxillary canine is the tooth located laterally from both maxillary lateral incisors of the mouth but mesial from both maxillary first premolars....
s. Sometimes other carnivorous mammals with elongated teeth are also called saber-toothed cats, although they do not belong to the felids. Besides the machairodonts, saber-toothed predators arose in the Nimravidae

Nimravidae

The Nimravidae, sometimes known as false sabre-tooths, are an extinct family of mammalian Carnivora. Although some nimravids physically resembled the saber-toothed cats of genus Smilodon, they were not closely related, but Evolution a similar form through parallel evolution....
, the Barbourofelidae

Barbourofelidae

Creodonta

The creodonts are an extinct order of mammals that lived from the Paleocene to the Miocene epochs. They shared a common ancestor with the Carnivora....
(Machaeroides
Machaeroides

Machaeroides is a genus of sabre-toothed creodont that lived during the Eocene. Its fossils were found in the U.S. state of Wyoming. It is the earliest known sabre-toothed mammal....
) and even in the Marsupials (Thylacosmilus
Thylacosmilus

Thylacosmilus was a genus of sabre-toothed marsupial predators that first appeared during the Miocene. Remains of the animal have been found in parts of South America, primarily Argentina....
).

Evolution
The Machairodontinae originated in the early or middle Miocene

Miocene

Discussion

Ask a question about 'Machairodontinae'

Start a new discussion about 'Machairodontinae'

Answer questions from other users

Full Discussion Forum

Encyclopedia

The Machairodontinae form a subfamily of the Felidae

Felidae

Saber-toothed cat

Maxillary canine

Nimravidae

Barbourofelidae

Creodonta

Evolution

The Machairodontinae originated in the early or middle Miocene

Miocene

The Miocene is a Geologic time scale of the Neogene period and extends from about 23.03 to 5.33 million years before the present. As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the start and end are well identified but the exact dates of the start and end of the period are uncertain....
of Africa. The early felid Pseudaelurus
Pseudaelurus

Pseudaelurus is a prehistoric Felidae that lived in Europe, Asia and North America in the Miocene approximately 20-8 million years ago. It is an ancestor of today's Felinae and Pantherinae as well as the extinct Machairodontinae, and is a successor to Proailurus....
quadridentatus showed a trend towards elongated upper canines and is believed to be at the base of the machairodontine evolution. The earliest known machairodontid genus is the middle Miocene Miomachairodus
Miomachairodus

Miomachairodus was the earliest genus of Machairodontinae saber-toothed cats. It is known from Africa and Turkey since the middle Miocene. Miomachairodus coexisted together with the Barbourofelidae Barbourofelis in Anatolia and survived until the Late Miocene ....
from Africa and Turkey. Until the late Miocene machairodontines co-existed at several places together with barbourofelids

Barbourofelidae

Barbourofelidae is an extinct family of mammalian Carnivora. Previously placed as a subfamily of the extinct Nimravidae, the barbourofelids have been recently assigned to their own distinct family, and are now thought to be taxonomically closer to the Felidae than to the Nimravidae....
, archaic large carnivores, bearing also long sabreteeth. Traditionally three different tribes of machairodontines were recognized, the Smilodontini
Smilodontini

Smilodontini is an extinct tribe of "saber-toothed cats", contained within the Machairodontinae subfamily of the Felidae. As the name suggests, the famous genus of Smilodon is part of this group, but there are also two other distinct genera in Smilodontini....
with typical dirk-toothed forms like Megantereon
Megantereon

Megantereon was an ancient Machairodontinae saber-toothed cat that may be the ancestor of Smilodon....
and Smilodon
Smilodon

Smilodon , sometimes called sabre-toothed cat, is an extinction genus of large Machairodontinae saber-toothed cats that lived between approximately 2.5 million to 10,000 years ago in North America and South America....
, the Machairodontini or Homotherini with scimitar-toothed cats like Machairodus
Machairodus

Machairodus was a genus of large, Machairodontinae saber-toothed cats that lived in Europe, Asia, Africa and North America from approximately 13 million years ago to 2 million years ago....
or Homotherium
Homotherium

Homotherium is a genus of machairodontinae saber-toothed cats, often termed scimitar cats, that lived approximately 5 million to 10,000 years ago in North America, South America, Eurasia and Africa....
and the Metailurini
Metailurini

Metailurini is a tribe of extinct cats with canines longer than neofelids but smaller than true saber toothed cats. The teeth are more conical than flat as well....
, containing generea like Dinofelis
Dinofelis

Dinofelis is a genus of saber-toothed cats belonging to the tribe Metailurini. They were widespread in Europe, Asia, Africa and North America at least 5 million to about 1.2 million years ago ....
and Metailurus
Metailurus

Metailurus is a genus of false saber-toothed cats belonging to the tribe Metailurini that lived in Europe and Asia approximately 9-6 million years ago....
. However, recently the Metailurini are grouped within another felid subfamily, the Felinae, not into the Machairodontinae. The last machairodontine genera Smilodon and Homotherium disappeared not until the latest Pleistocene

Pleistocene

The Pleistocene is the epoch from 1.8 million to 10,000 years Before Present covering the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
, roughly 10.000 years ago in the Americas.

The name 'saber-toothed tigers' is misleading. Machairodonts were not even in the same subfamily as tigers, there is no evidence that they had tiger-like coat patterns, and this broad group of animals certainly did not all live or hunt in the same manner as the modern tiger

Tiger

The tiger is a member of the Felidae family; the largest of the four "big cats" in the genus Panthera. Native to much of eastern and southern Asia, the tiger is an apex predator and an Carnivore#Obligate carnivores....
. DNA analysis

Polymerase chain reaction

The polymerase chain reaction is a technique widely used in molecular biology. It derives its name from one of its key components, a DNA polymerase used to amplify a piece of DNA by in vitro enzyme DNA replication....
published in 2005 confirmed and clarified cladistic analysis

Cladistics

Cladistics is the hierarchical classification of species based on evolutionary ancestry. Cladistics is distinguished from other taxonomic systems because it focuses on evolution rather than similarities between species, and because it places heavy emphasis on objective, quantitative analysis....
in showing that the Machairodontinae diverged early from the ancestors of modern cats and are not closely related to any living feline species. Sabertooths also coexisted in many places together with conical-toothed cats. In Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km? including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area....
and Eurasia, sabertooths competed with several pantherine

Pantherinae

Pantherinae is the subfamily of the family Felidae which includes the genera Panthera, Uncia and Neofelis. The divergence of Pantherinae from Felinae has been ranked between six and ten Mega-annum....
s and cheetahs until the early or middle Pleistocene. Homotherium survived in Northern Europe even until the late Pleistocene. In the Americas they coexisted together with the cougar, American lion

American lion

The American lion also known as the North American lion, American cave lion, is an extinct Felidae known from fossils. It was one of the largest subspecies of lion ever to have existed, comparable in size to the Early Middle Pleistocene primitive cave lion, Panthera leo fossilis, and about twenty-five percent larger than...
, American cheetah, and jaguar

Jaguar

The jaguar, Panthera onca, is a New World Felidae and one of four "big cats" in the Panthera genus, along with the tiger, lion, and leopard of the Old World....
until the latest Pleistocene. Saber-toothed and conical-toothed cats competed with each other for food resources, until the last of the former became extinct. All recent felids have more or less conical-shaped upper canines.

Teeth

Machairodonts are divided into two types: dirk-toothed and scimitar-toothed. Dirk-toothed cats had elongated, narrow upper canines and generally had stocky bodies. Scimitar-toothed cats had broader and shorter upper canines and a typically lithe body form with longer legs. The longer-toothed cats often had a bony flange

Flange

A flange is an external or internal rib, or rim , for Shear strength, as the flange of an iron Beam or I-beam ; or for a guide, as the flange of a train wheel; or for attachment to another object, as the flange on the end of a pipe, steam cylinder, etc, or on the lens mount of a camera....
that extended from their lower mandible. However, one genus, Xenosmilus
Xenosmilus

Xenosmilus is a genus of extinct Machairodontinae, or saber-toothed cat. Two fairly intact specimens were found by amateur fossil hunters, in 1983 in the Haile limestone mines in Alachua County, Florida, Florida....
, known only from two fairly complete fossils, broke this mould, possessing both the stout heavy limbs associated with dirk-toothed cats, and the stout canines of a scimitar-toothed cat.

Hunting techniques

The method by which machairodonts hunted is hotly debated. It was originally thought that they used a 'stabbing' motion with their teeth (dropping their jaws wide open, baring their teeth, and thrashing downward). However, this is now considered unlikely, for the teeth, being so long, were fragile, and a large prey animal thrashing about could easily injure the teeth, which would impair hunting. Some scientists suggest that the cats slashed at the bellies of large animals with their teeth and waited for them to die of blood loss, although the risk of breakage would still be high. When the bite of a dirk toothed cat is matched against the neck of a large ungulate

Ungulate

Ungulates are several groups of mammals, most of which use the tips of their toes, usually hoofed, to sustain their whole body weight while moving....
, however, it shows that the bite would sever all arteries and veins, while acting as a clamp around the windpipe. This method would still have been risky for the teeth if the prey moved too much, but less risky than the stabbing method; with the neck bite, the cat would be anchored with its incisors and lower canines. Also, if the cats worked in prides (there is evidence that some species may have), they could have subdued the animal before performing the killing bite.

Genera

The genera of Machairodontines:

Machairodontini

Machairodus
Machairodus

Machairodus was a genus of large, Machairodontinae saber-toothed cats that lived in Europe, Asia, Africa and North America from approximately 13 million years ago to 2 million years ago....
: Miocene; Eurasia, Africa and North America
Homotherium
Homotherium

Homotherium is a genus of machairodontinae saber-toothed cats, often termed scimitar cats, that lived approximately 5 million to 10,000 years ago in North America, South America, Eurasia and Africa....
: early Pliocene to latest Pleistocene; Eurasia, Africa, North America and South America
Xenosmilus
Xenosmilus

Xenosmilus is a genus of extinct Machairodontinae, or saber-toothed cat. Two fairly intact specimens were found by amateur fossil hunters, in 1983 in the Haile limestone mines in Alachua County, Florida, Florida....
: early Pleistocene; North America
Lokontailurus: late Miocene; Africa
Miomachairodus
Miomachairodus

Miomachairodus was the earliest genus of Machairodontinae saber-toothed cats. It is known from Africa and Turkey since the middle Miocene. Miomachairodus coexisted together with the Barbourofelidae Barbourofelis in Anatolia and survived until the Late Miocene ....
: middle Miocene; North Africa, Turkey
Hemimachairodus: Pleistocene; Java

Smilodontini
Smilodontini

Smilodontini is an extinct tribe of "saber-toothed cats", contained within the Machairodontinae subfamily of the Felidae. As the name suggests, the famous genus of Smilodon is part of this group, but there are also two other distinct genera in Smilodontini....

Paramachairodus
Paramachairodus

Paramachairodus is one of the oldest known true saber-toothed cats . A large number of fossils were discovered in Cerro Batallones, a Late Miocene fossil site near Madrid, Spain....
: middle to late Miocene; Europe and Asia
Megantereon
Megantereon

Megantereon was an ancient Machairodontinae saber-toothed cat that may be the ancestor of Smilodon....
: early Pliocene to middle Pleistocene; Europe, Asia, Africa and North America
Smilodon
Smilodon

Smilodon , sometimes called sabre-toothed cat, is an extinction genus of large Machairodontinae saber-toothed cats that lived between approximately 2.5 million to 10,000 years ago in North America and South America....
: late Pliocene to latest Pleistocene, North and South America