Xenosmilus

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Xenosmilus
Temporal range: Early Pleistocene to Middle Pleistocene, 2-1.0 Ma
Xenosmilus hodsonae.jpg
X. hodsonae, Florida Museum of Natural History Fossil Hall at the University of Florida
Scientific classification e
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Suborder: Feliformia
Family: Felidae
Subfamily: †Machairodontinae
Tribe: †Homotherini
Genus: †Xenosmilus
Martin et al., 2000
Species
  • †Xenosmilus hodsonae
  • †Xenosmilus venezuelensis? Rincón et al., 2011[1]

Xenosmilus hodsonae (from Greek, ξένος, xenos, "strange" + σμίλη, smilē, "chisel" ) is an extinct species of the Machairodontinae, or saber-toothed cats.

Description

The species name hodsonae originates from Debra Hodson, the wife of a researcher.[2] Two fairly intact specimens were found by amateur fossil hunters in 1983 (1981 by some sources) in the Haile limestone mines in Alachua County, Florida. In 1994, the fossils were examined, and it was decided that the cats were of an entirely new genus.[3] The fossils were of Irvingtonian age (1.8 to 0.3 Ma).[4] Because the skeletons were found beside each other, some suspect Xenosmilus was a social mammal.[2] Found alongside the two skeletons were dozens of peccary bones. It seems likely, with their muscular builds, that X. hodsonae preyed upon peccaries.

Xenosmilus and Glyptodon
Life restoration by Mauricio Antón

Physically, the cat reached around 2 m (6.6 ft) long[5] with a highly muscular body and weighed around 300–350 kg (660–770 lb), making it similar in size to the fellow machairodonts Machairodus horribilis[6] and Adeilosmilus kabir. Only Smilodon populator was noticeably larger amongst the saber-toothed cats.[5][7] , its also been found in quarries dating to the end Blancan such as Inglis 1a and Haile 7g, dating it up to 2 million years ago.[8] The skull of Xenosmilus was 33 centimetres (13 in) [9] in length, slighty smaller than Amphimachairodus giganteus which was 14 inches in length, although xenosmilus is noted to have a proportionally shorter skull.

Classification

Xenosmilus is in the tribe Homotherini in the subfamily Machairodontinae of the cat family. A 2022 paper that reviewed the phylogeny of machairodonts in relation to a newly-described genus proposed that Xenosmilus was among the more derived members of the clade.[10]

Xenosmilus is classified as a member of the Homotherini (sometimes referred to as Homotheriina), a tribe or subtribe of machairodonts. According to the 2022 study that suggests the subtribe hypothesis is correct while describing the transitional genus Taowu, Xenosmilus stands as a derived member of this subtribe, which is proposed to be nestled in the Machairodontini. This same study also suggests an increasing trend of robustness in more derived scimitar-toothed machairodonts, which may be a result of hunting slower, larger, and stronger types of prey.[10]

Paleobiology

Before the discovery of Xenosmilus, all known saber-toothed cats fell into two general categories. Dirk toothed cats had long upper canines and stout legs. Scimitar toothed cats had only mildly elongated canines, and long legs. Xenosmilus broke these groupings by possessing both stout muscular legs and body, and short broad upper canines.[11] Unlike most other saber-toothed cats, all of Xenosmilus's teeth were serrated, not just its fangs and incisors. The way its top teeth were lined up also allowed Xenosmilus to concentrate its bite force on two teeth at a time.[2]

Xenosmilus has also been theorized by some to have hunted via a "bite and retreat" strategy using its teeth to inflict deep wounds because of the way its canines and incisors could operate as a unit during a bite, leading to Xenosmilus bearing the occasional moniker of "cookie-cutter cat".[12][13] Studies published in 2022 suggest that Xenosmilus and other machairodonts such as Smilodon were also capable of efficiently removing meat from a kill without damaging their teeth, as evidenced by bite marks on the bones of Platygonus. This same study also suggests that machairodonts could consume at least smaller bones when feeding, similar to lions.[14]

References

  1. ^ Jiangzuo, Q.; Werdelin, L.; Sun, Y. (2022). "A dwarf sabertooth cat (Felidae: Machairodontinae) from Shanxi, China, and the phylogeny of the sabertooth tribe Machairodontini". Quaternary Science Reviews. 284: Article 107517. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107517.
  2. ^ a b c "Xenosmilus is the grittier name for "cookie-cutter panda cat"". Coffee and Creatures. 2019-12-19. Archived from the original on 9 November 2021. Retrieved 2020-06-27.
  3. ^ Cookie-Cutter Cat Not as Cute as the Name Sounds, Wired. Archived copy from 21 November 2021.
  4. ^ Paleobiology Database: Xenosmilus, Age range and collections
  5. ^ a b "Xenosmilus". ucmp.berkeley.edu. Archived from the original on 9 July 2021. Retrieved 2021-07-04.
  6. ^ Giovanni G. Bellani (2019). Felines of the World. Discoveries in Taxonomic Classification and History. Elsevier Science. pp. 30–31. ISBN 9780128172773. Retrieved 19 September 2022.
  7. ^ "Xenosmilus hodsonae". Florida Museum. 2017-04-03. Archived from the original on 19 September 2020. Retrieved 2021-07-04.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228401554_A_new_early_Pleistocene_tapir_Mammalia_Perissodactyla_from_Florida_with_a_review_of_Blancan_tapirs_from_the_state was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Upper-tooth-row-and-cranial-measurement-comparisons-among-Homotheriini-in-mm_tbl1_254314670 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ a b Jiangzuo, Qigao; Werdelin, Lars; Sun, Yuanlin (2022-05-15). "A dwarf sabertooth cat (Felidae: Machairodontinae) from Shanxi, China, and the phylogeny of the sabertooth tribe Machairodontini". Quaternary Science Reviews. 284: 107517. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107517. ISSN 0277-3791.
  11. ^ A more fearsome saber-toothed cat, ScienceNews, October 20, 2008
  12. ^ Anton, Mauricio (2013). Sabertooth.
  13. ^ "Cookie-Cutter Cat Not as Cute as the Name Sounds". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2021-07-04.
  14. ^ Domínguez-Rodrigo, M., Egeland, C.P., Cobo-Sánchez, L. et al. Sabertooth carcass consumption behavior and the dynamics of Pleistocene large carnivoran guilds. Sci Rep 12, 6045 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-09480-7
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