| Proailurus | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Proailurus lemanensis skull | |
Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Family: | Felidae |
| Subfamily: | †Proailurinae Zittel, 1893 |
| Genus: | †Proailurus Filhol, 1879 |
| Type species | |
| †Proailurus lemanensis Filhol, 1879 | |
| Other Species | |
| |
Proailurus is an extinctfelid genus that lived in Europe and Asia approximately 25–30.8 million years ago in the LateOligocene andMiocene. Fossils have been found inMongolia,Germany, andSpain.
The generic nameProailurus comes from theGreekπρόpro, meaning 'before', andαἴλουροςailuros, meaning 'cat'.[citation needed] The specific name ofP. bourbonnensis simply means "from the Bourbonnais".[1]
Proailurus lemanensis was a compact and small animal, just a little larger than the domestic cat, weighing about 20 lb (9 kg). It had a long tail, large eyes and sharp claws and teeth, with similar proportions to the modernviverrids. Its claws would have been retractable to some extent. Like the viverrids,Proailurus was at least partiallyarboreal.[2]
Proailurus major is estimated to have been significantly larger, about 23 kg. The p4 tooth is stronger and the m1 is less elongated than inP. lemanensis.[1]
Proailurus bourbonnensis was a smaller species, estimated to have been 7–10 kg. Of the teeth, the p1 is wholly missing, and the m1 was slightly less elongated and the m2 less reduced than inP. lemanensis.[1]
The genusProailurus was first described byHenri Filhol in 1879 for fossils found in the Saint-Gerand site in France. He named two species,Proailurus lemanensis, based on a mandible, andProailurus julieni.[3] However,P. julieni was later placed in the genusStenogale.[4][5]
In 1882, Filhol described a third species,Proailurus medius.[6] In 1888, Schlosser made"P." medius the type species of the genusHaplogale.[7]Haplogale media's placement was later confirmed by Robert Hunt's 1998 studies of aeluroid skulls.[8]
In 1999, Peigné carried out a systematic review of the genus, naming another two species,P. bourbonnensis andP. major, in the process.P. major was based on a single specimen, a left mandible from Quercy and Mainz, whileP. bourbonnensis was based on a number of lower mandibles and teeth, as well as a leftmaxilla.[1][9]
Fossils ofProailurus lemanensis were first found in Saint-Gerand and later in Quercy.[8] Robert Hunt, while measuring fragmentary fossils from Hasanda-Gol in Mongolia, placed a lower jaw fragment asProailurus sp.,[8] but Peigne placed the fragment innimravid genusEofelis instead, which later authors supported,[1][9] although at least one suggested the fragment could be assigned toPseudaelurus cuspidatus instead.[10]
P. major andP. bourbonnensis are both known from a single locality each:P. major fromSaint-Gérand-le-Puy andP. bourbonnensis from Saint-Gérand-le-Puy, Weisbaden-Amoneburg, andBudenheim (where it is the onlyProailurus species known from theMainz Basin).[1]
Several fossils believed to beProailurus-grade material have been found in North America, including the Ginn Quarry cat, known from a complete skull, which has dentition similar toProailurus lemanensis but with a slightly larger skull. Robert Hunt also noted several specimens that he believed belonged toProailurus-grade felids, including a pair from the Sheep Creek site in Nebraska, one a lynx-sized felid, the other closer in size to a leopard; another individual from an East Cuyumungue locality, possibly the same species as the larger Sheep Creek specimen; and another specimen from Echo Quarry.[8] However, the larger Sheep Creek specimen, the East Cuyumungue individual, and the Echo Quarry specimen were all described and assigned to the speciesHyperailurictis validus in 2001,[11] and the smaller Sheep Creek material toPseudaelurus skinneri in 2003.[12] The Ginn Quarry cat was described, but not assigned to any taxa, in 2019; though the authors did state that "it should not be dismissed as a 'proailurine-grade' felid" and suggested placing it inHyperailurictis (despite being considerably older than any knownHyperailurictis) or a new genus.[13]
Proailurus is believed to have evolved from earlier ailuroid carnivorans such asStenogale andHaplogale.[8] It is a likely ancestor ofPseudaelurus, which lived 20–10 million years ago, and probably gave rise to the major felid lines, including the extinctmachairodontines and the extantfelines andpantherines, although thephylogeny of the cats is still not precisely known.[14]
Proailurus is largely considered to be the first "true" cat and the ancestor of the entire cat family. Most studies support this, placingProailurus as the basal member of the Felidae.[15] One 2005 phylogeny placed it as a basal member of the Feliformia,[16] but later studies do not support this.[9]
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