Paleontologists Identify Two New Species of Sabertooth Cat

Published:27 Aug.2023 Source:Cell Press

The study described a total of four species. Two of these species, Dinofelis werdelini and Lokotunjailurus chimsamyae, were previously unknown. Dinofelis sabertooths are globally distributed, and their fossils have been found in Africa, China, Europe, and North America. The researchers were expecting to identify a new Dinofelis species from Langebaanweg based on prior research. However, Lokotunjailurus has only ever been identified in Kenya and Chad before this analysis. This suggests that they may have been distributed all throughout Africa between 5-7 million years ago.

Valenciano was a postdoctoral fellow at the Iziko Museums of South Africa, which houses all the sabertooth fossils that were analyzed in this study. A team of colleagues from China, South Africa, and Spain put the final project together. To construct a family tree, the researchers classified the physical traits of each sabertooth species -- such as presence or absence of teeth, jaw and skull shape, and tooth structure -- and coded this information into a matrix that could determine how closely related each sabertooth was to its evolutionary cousins. The resulting population composition of Langebaanweg sabertooths (Machairodontini, Metailurini, and Feline) reflects the increasing global temperatures and environmental changes of the Pliocene epoch.