The other Barbourofelis enters the LRT
The apex carnivore, Barbourofelis fricki had a smaller cousin,
Barbourofelis morissi (Fig 1) added today in an attempt to figure out what made this genus difficult = fragile to nest. Well, I found out.
Details follow.
Figure 1. Barbourofelis specimens to size and to scale.
” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/barbourofelis-morrisi-fam-79999.jpg?w=269″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/barbourofelis-morrisi-fam-79999.jpg?w=584″ class=”size-full wp-image-94152″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/barbourofelis-morrisi-fam-79999.jpg” alt=”Figure 1. Barbourofelis specimens to size and to scale. ” width=”584″ height=”652″ srcset=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/barbourofelis-morrisi-fam-79999.jpg?w=584&h=652 584w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/barbourofelis-morrisi-fam-79999.jpg?w=134&h=150 134w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/barbourofelis-morrisi-fam-79999.jpg?w=269&h=300 269w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/barbourofelis-morrisi-fam-79999.jpg 588w” sizes=”(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px” />
Figure 1. Barbourofelis specimens to size and to scale.
Sharp-eyed readers will note
new reconstructions in dorsal and palatal view. Here’s why: Schultz, Shultz and Martin 1970 illustrated these views not with a half view, which I mistakenly assumed, but a 55% view that permitted the authors to show the meandering midline. I didn’t see that until today. We call that freshman naiveté. That mistake is finally corrected here (Fig 1).
The premaxilla mistakenly had four procumbent tooth alveoli.
Now that has been corrected to three alveoli.
Barbourofelis fricki
(Schultz, Schultz and Martin 1970; Middle to Late Miocene, 13-7mya) was traditionally considered a placental member of the Carnivora and a big cat (= Feliformia). Here in the large reptile tree (LRT, 2340 taxa, updated daily) Barbourofelis nests with other placental sabertooths, but far from cats, closer to wolverines, bears, bush dogs and wolves. The huge molars had shearing surfaces, as in big cats, not grinding surfaces. The premolars were tiny. The mandible (= dentary) must hyper extend in order to clear the sabers.
The sabers are slender, as in Thylacosmilus.
The orbit is enclosed, as in Thylacosmilus.
These and other convergent data points caused earlier phylogenetic problems.
References
Schultz CB, Schultz MR and Martin LD 1970. A New Tribe of Saber-toothed Cats (Barbourofelini) from the Pliocene of North America. Bulletin of the University of Nebraska State Museum. 9 (1).
Source: https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/2025/08/13/the-other-barbourofelis-enters-the-lrt/
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