Panthera shawi
Panthera shawi is an extinct prehistoric cat, of which a single canine tooth was excavated in Sterkfontein cave in South Africa by Robert Broom in the 1940s. Broom described it in 1948 using the scientific name Felis shawi.[1] It is thought to be the oldest known Panthera species in Africa.[2][3]
| Panthera shawi Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Suborder: | Feliformia |
| Family: | Felidae |
| Subfamily: | Pantherinae |
| Genus: | Panthera |
| Species: | †P. shawi |
| Binomial name | |
| †Panthera shawi (Broom, 1948) | |
Description
The canine tooth is about 12 mm (0.47 in) long and considerably larger and thicker at the base than of a modern lion. The tooth crown measures 31 mm × 24 mm (1.22 in × 0.94 in) at the base and is 67.5 mm (2.66 in) long.[1]
Panthera shawi, of the Felidae family, is a subspecies of the Panthera leo species from South Africa that lived around three million years ago. Their teeth are more closely related to those of leopards and jaguars than to lions.
References
- Broom, R. (1948). "Some South African Pliocene and Pleistocene mammals" (PDF). Annals of the Transvaal Museum. 21: 1–38.
- Sabol, M. (2011). "Masters of the lost world: a hypothetical look at the temporal and spatial distribution of lion-like felids". Quaternaire. 4: 229–236.
- Hemmer, Helmut (October 19, 2022). "The identity of the "lion", Panthera principialis sp. nov., from the Pliocene Tanzanian site of Laetoli and its significance for molecular dating the pantherine phylogeny, with remarks on Panthera shawi (Broom, 1948), and a revision of Puma incurva (Ewer, 1956), the Early Pleistocene Swartkrans "leopard" (Carnivora, Felidae)". Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments. doi:10.1007/s12549-022-00542-2.
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