Paleontologists on the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales-CSIC have recognized a brand new genus and species of medium-sized feline from a partial jaw discovered within the city space of Madrid, Spain.
Reconstruction of the mandible, cranium, masticatory muscle groups, and life look of Magerifelis peignei. Image credit score: Jesús Gamarra.
The new cat species, named Magerifelis peignei, lived in what’s now Spain some 15.5 million years in the past (Middle Miocene epoch).
It belonged to Felinae, a subfamily of small cats having a bony hyoid due to which they can purr however not roar.
“Magerifelis peignei is the sister group of a clade composed of Pristifelis attica, living species of the genus Felis (such as Felis margarita, Felis silvestris, and Felis lybica), Profelis aurata, and Lynx pardinus,” mentioned lead writer Dr. Manuel Salesa and his colleagues from the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales-CSIC.
The fossilized stays of Magerifelis peignei have been present in 2007 at Príncipe Pío-2, a not too long ago found fossil locality placed within the city limits of Madrid metropolis, Spain.
The specimen may be very nicely preserved, displaying the whole hemimandible, in addition to all of the tooth besides the incisors.
It is so full and in such a great state of preservation that it offers data of nice curiosity for finishing up paleoecological inferences on this new feline.
“We recovered a practically complete jaw that preserved almost all of its teeth in exceptional condition,” Dr. Siliceo mentioned.
“The most surprising thing was that it had a tiny lower second molar, a tooth absent in all living and fossil felids except Proailurus.”
The estimated physique mass of Magerifelis peignei is 7.61 kg, which falls inside the vary of feminine people of Lynx rufus, Leptailurus serval, and Caracal caracal.
“When compared with living felines, the hemimandible of Magerifelis peignei from Príncipe Pío-2 is larger than that of Felis silvestris, showing a similar size to those of Caracal caracal, Leptailurus serval, and Lynx pardinus,” the palenontologists mentioned.
“Nevertheless, if the mandibles of these species are shown at the same mandibular length for better comparison, the dentition of the new speices is clearly smaller than those of these latter species, and thus, the specimen has a more robust appearance, with a relatively higher mandibular corpus, very similar to that of the much larger Lynx lynx.”
According to the authors, Magerifelis peignei was able to producing a powerful chunk power when looking, and that may have allowed it to kill comparatively massive prey.
“The Príncipe Pío-2 feline could have preyed upon relatively larger prey than those of extant, similarly sized felines,” they mentioned.
Their paper was revealed this month within the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
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Manuel J. Salesa et al. Unraveling the range of early felines: a brand new genus of Felinae (Carnivora, Felidae) from the Middle Miocene of Madrid (Spain). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, revealed on-line January 9, 2024; doi: 10.1080/02724634.2023.2288924
