Xenosmilus

Xenosmilus in the Florida Museum of Natural History

• Florida

• Xenosmilus hodsonae

Xenosmilus is a saber-toothed cat from the Pleistocene of North America. Fossils of this genus, which reached about the size of today's lions, are more than a million years old. There are so far only two partial skeletons known from Florida.

Until the description of the genus only two kinds of saber-toothed cats from the Lower Pleistocene of North America were known. The smaller, more compact way Smilodon gracilis and the larger, leaner type Homotherium serum, in contrast to Smilodon also had shorter, more flattened saber teeth. Finds a cat that combines the features of both genera Homotherium and Smilodon, led to the description of the new genus Xenosmilus. So far, only the type species is X. known hodsonae.

Discoverer of Xenosmilus is the fossil collector John B. Babiarz from Mesa ( Arizona). The epithet " hodsonae " refers to his wife Debra L. Hodson.

Tribal History Xenosmilus is, like Homotherium in the group of Homotherini. However, it had compared to the other genera of this group stronger, shorter legs, which more reminiscent of that of Smilodon. Typical were also strongly serrated, relatively short saber teeth and a robust body.

Swell

• LD Martin, JP Babiarz, VL Naples, J. Hearst: Three Ways To Be a Saber - Toothed Cat. In: Natural Sciences. 87, 1, 2000, ISSN 0028-1042, pp. 41-44, doi: 10.1007/s001140050007.
• Dick Mol, Wilrie van Logchem, Kees van Hooijdonk, Remie Bakker: The Saber - Toothed Cat of the North Sea. DrukWare, Norg 2008, ISBN 978-90-78707-04-2.

• Cats
• Felidae
• Extinct predator