Reconstruction of the mandible, skull, masticatory muscles, and life appearance of Magerifelis peignei. Image credit: Jesús Gamarra.
SciNews has a post about the discovery of a new species of ancient cat. Magerifelis peignei lived about 15.5 million years ago during the Miocene epoch in what is now Spain. It was discovered in 2007 near Madrid at Príncipe Pío-2, which was then a recently discovered fossil locality. The description was published recently in the journal Vertebrate Paleontology.
The specimen is very well preserved, showing the complete hemimandible, as well as all the teeth except the incisors.
It is so complete and in such a good state of preservation that it provides information of great interest for carrying out paleoecological inferences on this new feline.
“We recovered a practically complete jaw that preserved almost all of its teeth in exceptional condition,” Dr. Siliceo said.
“The most surprising thing was that it had a tiny lower second molar, a tooth absent in all living and fossil felids except Proailurus.”
