Thylacosmilus

Thylacosmilus
Temporal range: Late MiocenePliocene (HuayquerianChapadmalalan)
c. 9–3 Ma
Two reconstructed skeletons mounted in fighting pose, Museum of Paleontology Egidio Feruglio
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Sparassodonta
Family: Thylacosmilidae
Genus: Thylacosmilus
Riggs 1933
Species:
T. atrox
Binomial name
Thylacosmilus atrox
Riggs 1933
Synonyms
  • Achlysictis Ameghino 1891
  • T. lentis Riggs 1933

Thylacosmilus is an extinct genus of saber-toothed metatherian mammals that inhabited South America from the Late Miocene to Pliocene epochs. Though Thylacosmilus looks similar to the "saber-toothed cats", it was not a felid, like the well-known North American Smilodon, but a sparassodont, a group closely related to marsupials, and only superficially resembled other saber-toothed mammals due to convergent evolution. A 2005 study found that the bite forces of Thylacosmilus and Smilodon were low, which indicates the killing-techniques of saber-toothed animals differed from those of extant species. Remains of Thylacosmilus have been found primarily in Catamarca, Entre Ríos, and La Pampa Provinces in northern Argentina.[1]

  1. ^ Forasiepi, Analía M. (2009). "Osteology of Arctodictis sinclairi (Mammalia, Metatheria, Sparassodonta) and phylogeny of Cenozoic metatherian carnivores from South America". Monografías del Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales. 6: 1–174.