Barbourofelidae

Barbourofelidae Temporal range: Miocene, 16.9–9 Ma PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N
Barbourofelis loveorum at the Florida Museum of Natural History
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Suborder:	Feliformia
Family:	†Barbourofelidae Schultz, et al., 1970[1]

Barbourofelidae is an extinct family of mammalian carnivores of the suborder Feliformia that lived in North America, Eurasia and Africa during the Miocene epoch (16.9—9.0 Ma) and existed for about 7.9 million years.^[2]

Taxonomy

The Barbourofelinae were named by Schultz et al. (1970). The type genus is Barbourofelis. It was assigned to Nimravidae by Bryant (1991); and to Carnivora by Morlo et al. (2004).^[3][4]

Barbourofelidae was previously classified as a subfamily of the extinct Nimravidae, but is now thought to be taxonomically closer to the Felidae than to the Nimravidae, and has subsequently been reranked as a distinct family by Morlo et al. (2004). Barbourofelids first appear in the fossil record in the Early Miocene of Africa. By the end of the Early Miocene, a land bridge had opened between Africa and Eurasia, allowing for a faunal exchange between the two continents. Barbourofelids migrated at least three times from Africa to Europe (Morlo 2006).^[5] While the genus Sansanosmilus evolved in Europe, barbourofelids also migrated through Eurasia and reached North America by the late Miocene, represented there solely by the genus Barbourofelis.

Classification

• Family †Barbourofelidae
  • Genus †Ginsburgsmilus
    • †Ginsburgsmilus napakensis
  • Genus †Afrosmilus
    • †Afrosmilus turkanae
    • †Afrosmilus africanus
    • †Afrosmilus hispanicus
  • Genus †Prosansanosmilus
    • †Prosansanosmilus peregrinus
    • †Prosansanosmilus eggeri
  • Genus †Sansanosmilus
    • †Sansanosmilus palmidens
    • †Sansanosmilus jourdani
    • †Sansanosmilus vallesiensis
    • †Sansanosmilus piveteaui
  • Genus †Syrtosmilus
    • †Syrtosmilus syrtensis
  • Genus †Vampyrictis
    • †Vampyrictis vipera
  • Genus †Barbourofelis
    • †Barbourofelis whitfordi
    • †Barbourofelis lovei
    • †Barbourofelis morrisi
    • †Barbourofelis fricki

References

• MICHAEL MORLO, STÉPHANE PEIGNÉ and DORIS NAGEL (January 2004). "A new species of Prosansanosmilus: implications for the systematic relationships of the family Barbourofelidae new rank (Carnivora, Mammalia)". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 140 (1): 43. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2004.00087.x. 
• Lars W. van den Hoek Ostende, Michael Morlo & Doris Nagel (July 2006). "Fossils explained 52 Majestic killers: the sabre-toothed cats". Geology Today. 22 (4): 150. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2451.2006.00572.x. 
• Michael Morlo (2006). "New remains of Barbourofelidae from the Miocene of Southern Germany: implications for the history of barbourid migrations". Beiträge zur Paläontologie, Wien. 30: 339–346. .