| Adelphailurus | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Family: | Felidae |
| Subfamily: | †Machairodontinae |
| Tribe: | †Metailurini |
| Genus: | †Adelphailurus Hibbard, 1934 |
| Type species | |
| Adelphailurus kansensis Hibbard, 1934 | |
 | |
| Range of Adelphailurus based on fossil record | |
| Synonyms | |
Metailurus kansensis(Hibbard, 1934)sensu Andersson & Werdelin, 2005 | |
Adelphailurus is an extinctgenus ofmetailurinmachairodontine (saber-toothed)cat that inhabited westernNorth America during the middlePliocene. It is monotypic, containing only the speciesAdelphailurus kansensis.[1][2]
The holotype and only specimen,KUMVP 3462, was collected by H. T. Martin from near the base of the Ogallala Formation in Sherman County,Kansas, in the summer of 1924. It was subsequently stored in the collections at the University of Kansas' Museum of Vertebrate Paleontology. However, it was not described until 1934 when paleontologistClaude W. Hibbard erected the new genus and speciesAdelphailurus kansensis for the specimen.[1]
The genus name is derived from the Greekἀδελφός/adelphós meaning "brother", andαἴλουρος/ailurus meaning "cat". The specific epithetkansensis means "from Kansas".[1]
The holotype ofAdelphailurus kansensis consists of the anterior portion of a skull with nearly perfect dentition on both the maxillaries and premaxillaries. Hibbard stated that the living cat would have a relatively broad skull with large canines.[1]
Hibbard only assigned the genus to the family Felidae in his original description.[1] It was assigned to the tribeMetailurini in 1983,[3] assigned in passing to Felidae by Carroll in 1988,[4][page needed] and to the subfamily Machairodontinae by Martin in 1998.[5]
In 2005, Werdelin and Andersson suggested thatAdelphailurus kansensis should be reassigned to the genusMetailurus asMetailurus kansensis,[6] but this was rejected and refuted by Li in 2014 and Spassov & Geraads in 2015.[7][8]
In 2010 it was suggested thatNimravides hibbardi was a junior synonym ofAdelphailurus kansensis.[9]
Position ofAdelphailurus in Metailurini according to a 2018 phylogenetic analysis:[10]
| Metailurini |
| |||||||||||||||
| Homotherini |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Metailurini | ||
| Smilodontini | ||
| Incertae sedis: | ||
 | This article related to aprehistoriccarnivoran is astub. You can help Wikipedia byexpanding it. |
