Functional and Systematic Implications of the Postcranial Anatomy of a Late Miocene Feline (Carnivora, Felidae) from Batallones-1 (Madrid, Spain)

Abstract

The Spanish late Miocene locality of Batallones-1 yielded a rich sample of large carnivorans, including saber-toothed felids, amphicyonids, and ailurids, but also of smaller species, with the small cats being especially interesting. Two species are known from Batallones-1, one of them the size of a wildcat, Felis silvestris, the other one the size of a caracal, Caracal caracal. The former is represented by skulls, mandibles, and postcranial bones, whereas the latter is known from a collection of long bones. Both species are less abundant than their larger relatives, the saber-toothed felids Promegantereon ogygia and Machairodus aphanistus, but the available sample allows us to assess body proportions and adaptations of the smallest species, and to propose a new genus for this feline, Leptofelis vallesiensis. Its limb bones are remarkably gracile compared to fossils of the earlier genera Pseudaelurus, Miopanthera, and Styriofelis, and comparable in cursorial adaptations to the wildcat, very different from extant arboreal cats. While middle Miocene felids were likely semiarboreal forest dwellers, L. vallesiensis would be mostly terrestrial, climbing essentially for protection. This indicates an adaptation to a mosaic of habitats, including relatively open terrain, and may be related to the climatic changes detected in Eurasia during the late Miocene.

The exceptionally high diversity of small carnivorans from the Late Miocene hominid locality of Hammerschmiede (Bavaria, Germany)

“…However, based on the comparison of [194], the calcaneum of Semigenetta differs from that of the felids in the relatively lower position of the sustentaculum tali, the more developed medial tubercle and the more distodorsally oriented articular surface for the astragalus. All these characteristics seem to fit to this morphology and differentiate it from the calcaneus of Leptofelis vallesiensis (Salesa [203] described in [204]. Additionally the measurements of the Hammerschmiede calcaneum (total length = 32.0 mm; maximum width = 13.5 mm) are similar to those reported by [192] reported by [21].…”

Coprolites in natural traps: direct evidence of bone‐eating carnivorans from the Late Miocene Batallones‐3 site, Madrid, Spain

“…The last group comprises a large amount of skulls, mandibles and almost complete skeletons of two species of sabre-tooth cats, a hyaenid, two species of derived amphicyonids, an ailuropod ursid, a large ailurid, mephitids and mustelids (e.g. Antón et al 2004Antón et al , 2020Peigné et al 2005Peigné et al , 2008Salesa et al 2006Salesa et al , 2008Salesa et al , 2010Salesa et al , 2012Salesa et al , 2019Abella et al 2013Domingo et al 2013aDomingo et al , 2016Monescillo et al 2014;Siliceo et al 2014Siliceo et al , 2015Siliceo et al , 2017Siliceo et al , 2020Fabre et al 2015;Valenciano et al 2015Valenciano et al , 2020Fraile 2016Fraile , 2017Abella & Valenciano 2017;Morales et al 2017;Valenciano 2017a,b). This fauna, alongside the micromammal remains, enabled all the sites to be assigned to the late Miocene (Vallesian, c. 9.6-9.3 Ma) (Peláez Campomanes et al 2017).…”

A new quantitative approach for guild analyses reveals the evolution of the carnivoran (Mammalia) guild at the Upper Miocene Proto-Rhine (Germany)

“…We rely on the data given by Morlo (1997) and Roth and Morlo (1997) for taxonomic assignments of the Dorn-Dürkheim 1 carnivorans (Table 1) with the exceptions of assigning 'Ursavus sp.' (Roth and Morlo 1997) to Agriarctos depereti and including 'Felis' attica into Pristifelis as discussed by Salesa et al (2019).…”