#barbourofelidae

[tysonfurybattlepass]

trick or treat!

you get this unspecified sansanosmilus jaw material!

this german specimen is fairly similar, and likely closely related to, the north american barbourofelis.

barbourofelidae is (debatedly) a taxonomic family featuring stoutly built bearlike feliforms with extremely long and thin saberteeth. there’s still some rumbling that they might be just a subset of the nimravidae family, but more study is needed to confirm.

[machairocat]

i <3 barbourofelis

does anyone know where i could get more information about other genera in the barbourofelidae family? been trying for days to get even a speck of diagnostic criteria on afrosmilus. :(

[alphynix]

Nix, may I please ask how you would distinguish between the Machairodonts and the not-actually-cat sabertooths (like the Nimravids or the Barbourofelids) in you were ever inspired to draw them side by side? (also, may I please ask if you have ever illustrated one of the Amphicyonidae?).

I’d distinguish the “false sabertooth” nimravids and barbourofelids by making them visually less cat-like, since they’re non-felid feliforms.

Differences in nose and ear shape can go a long way in making mammals look distinct from each other, so I’d try to avoid doing the classic triangular cat nose.

Plus they both have those bony flanges on their lower jaws that machairodonts lacked.

Nimravids have slightly longer snouts and smaller nasal cavities, and being very basal feliforms I’d give them more “generic carnivoran” features based on relatives like viverrids and nandiniids.

Barbourofelids have rather deep jaws and a a sort of square-ish head shape. Their taxonomic position is a little uncertain – they’re either the sister group to felids or close relatives of nimravids –  so I could potentially push their appearance even less cat-like, too.

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As for bear-dogs… I did actually illustrate a couple of those for a PBS Eons episode a little while back! I’ll be showing them off here along with a few other images very soon.

[tysonfurybattlepass]

What’s the group of animals that look like sabertooths but are not felids I think you mentioned o: ?

yes, the families nimravidae and barbourofelidae! some of them were sabertoothed, some had conical teeth like carnivorans of today. they were feliforms, but could be distinguished from true cats by their bearlike plantigrade feet and five back toes!

some, like dinictis felina, were as small as ocelots. some, like quercylurus major, were as large as grizzly bears!

afaik it’s still being debated whether the incredibly bizarre barbourofelids were nimravids or part of their own family.

built more like bears than like cats, these guys had some of the biggest mandibular flanges any animal has ever evolved. second only to the equally strange thylacosmilus, of course.