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
  • M. eothen
  • M. simpsoni

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

Restoration

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

  1. 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.


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