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Phylogeny of the sabertoothed felids ( C arnivora: F elidae: M achairodontinae)
Author(s) -
Christiansen Per
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
cladistics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.323
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 1096-0031
pISSN - 0748-3007
DOI - 10.1111/cla.12008
Subject(s) - synapomorphy , taxon , monophyly , cladistics , clade , biology , phylogenetic tree , zoology , phylogenetics , morphology (biology) , sister group , evolutionary biology , botany , genetics , gene
In recent years, advances in our understanding of feline relationships have cast light on their evolutionary history. In contrast, there have been no phylogenetic analyses on machairodont felids, making it difficult to develop an evolutionary hypothesis based on the recent surge of studies on their craniomandibular morphology and functional anatomy. In this paper, I provide the first phylogenetic hypothesis of machairodont relationships based on 50 craniomandibular and dental characters from a wide range of sabercats spanning more 11 Myr. Exact searches produced 19 most‐parsimonious trees, and a strict consensus was well resolved. The M achairodontinae comprise a number of basal taxa ( P romegantereon , M achairodus , N imravides , D inofelis , M etailurus ) and a well‐supported clade of primarily P lio‐ P leistocene taxa ( M egantereon , S milodon , A mphimachairodus , H omotherium , X enosmilus ) for which the name E umachairodontia taxon novum is proposed. Previous phenetic grouping of machairodont taxa into three distinct groups, the S milodontini, H omotherini and M etailurini, was not supported by cladistic parsimony analysis, and forcing monophyly of these groups was significantly incompatible with character distribution. Machairodonts as a clade are not characterized by saberteeth, i.e. hypertrophied, blade‐like upper canines, but by small lower canines, as well as small M 1 ; and large P 3 parastyle. True saberteeth arose later and are a synapomorphy of the E umachairodontia.