First small-sized Dinofelis: Evidence from the Plio-Pleistocene of North Africa 2021 (English)In: Quaternary Science Reviews, ISSN 0277-3791, E-ISSN 1873-457X, Vol. 265, article id 107028Article in journal (Refereed) Published

Abstract [en]

We describe small-sized specimens of the metailurine felid Dinofelis from a new Plio-Pleistocene site in North Africa. Dinofelis is a genus of saber-toothed cats mainly recorded from East and South Africa with numerous leopard to jaguar-sized species. The described specimens, clearly smaller than all the other African Dinofelis, resemble isolated remains from the Late Pliocene of France and the Early Pleistocene of Africa. Present evidence suggests that our form represents a new species and/or new lineage of Dinofelis, smaller and probably occupying a different ecological niche compared to the previously known members of the genus, and thus it adds complexity to the high intraspecific competition among large carnivorans in the Plio-Pleistocene of Africa.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages

Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2021. Vol. 265, article id 107028

Keywords [en]

Geology, Archaeology, Archaeology, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Global and Planetary Change, North Africa, Morocco, Plio-Pleistocene, Carnivora, Felidae, Machairodontinae, Dinofelis

National Category

Other Earth Sciences

Research subject

Diversity of life; The changing Earth

Identifiers

URN: urn:nbn:se:nrm:diva-4481DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2021.107028OAI: oai:DiVA.org:nrm-4481DiVA, id: diva2:1618415

Note

This work has been funded by Palarq Foundation, Spanish Ministry of Culture and Sport (Ref: 42-T002018N0000042853 and 170- T002019N0000038589), Direction of Cultural Heritage (Ministry of Culture and Communication, Morocco), Faculty of Sciences (Mohamed 1r University of Oujda, Morocco), INSAP (Institut National des Sciences de l'Archéologie et du Patrimoine), Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (Ref: CGL2016-80975-P, CGL2016-80000-P, PGC2018-095489-B-I00 and PGC2018-093925-B-C31), Agencia Estatal de Investigación–European Regional Development Fund of the European Union (CGL2017-82654-P, AEI/FEDER-UE), the Generalitat de Catalunya (CERCA Program) which is financed by European Community Research Infrastructure Action under the FP7 “Capacities” Program and Research Groups Support (2017 SGR 836 and 2017 SGR 859). R.S-R, M.G.CH., and P.S. research is funded by CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya. J.M.-M. is member of consolidated research group 2017 SGR 116 (AGAUR, Generalitat de Catalunya). A.R.-H. is the beneficiary of a postdoctoral scholarship from the MICINN, Subprograma Juan de la Cierva (IJC-037447-I) and member of the Consolidated Research Group 2017 SGR 1040 of the Generalitat de Catalunya. A.M.A and M.F. are beneficiaries of a fellowship from the Erasmus Mundus Program to do the Master in Quaternary and Prehistory at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Tarragona, Spain). The Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evoluciò Social (IPHES-CERCA) has received financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through the ‘María de Maeztu’ program for Units of Excellence (CEX2019-000945-M).

Available from: 2021-12-09 Created: 2021-12-09 Last updated: 2025-02-07Bibliographically approved

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Publisher's full texthttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2021.107028

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