Machaeroides
Machaeroides Temporal range: Eocene | |
---|---|
| |
Machaeroides eothen skull | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Clade: | Synapsida |
Class: | Mammalia |
Family: | †Oxyaenidae |
Subfamily: | †Machaeroidinae |
Genus: | †Machaeroides |
Type species | |
Machaeroides eothen Matthew, 1909 | |
Species | |
|
Machaeroides ("dagger-like") is a genus of sabre-toothed predatory mammal that lived during the Eocene (56 to 34 mya). Its fossils were found in the U.S. state of Wyoming.
Description

Either species bore a passing, or superficial resemblance to a very small, dog-sized saber-toothed cat. Machaeroides could be distinguished from actual saber-toothed cats by their more-elongated skulls, and their plantigrade stance. Machaeroides species are distinguished from the closely related Apataelurus by the fact that the former genus had smaller saber-teeth.
M. eothen weighed an estimated 10–14 kg, thus matching in size a smallish Staffordshire Terrier. M. simpsoni was smaller.(Egi 2001)
Taxonomic placement
Its position within the mammals has been in dispute. Experts have been equally divided over whether Machaeroides and its sister-genus, Apataelurus, belong in Oxyaenidae or Hyaenodontidae, though the most recent studies favor the former.[1]
References
- ↑ Shawn Z (2014) Saber-tooth origins: a new skeletal association and the affinities of Machaeroidinae (Mammalia, Creodonta). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, Program and Abstracts, 2014: 259–260.
- Egi, Naoko1 (2001): Body Mass Estimates in Extinct Mammals from Limb Bone Dimensions: the Case of North American Hyaenodontids. Palaeontology 44(3): 497-528. doi:10.1111/1475-4983.00189
|