#nimravidae

you get a game of spot the difference!

not only are these two different species, one of them isn’t even a cat!

the animal on the left is an extinct nimravid called dinictis felina. it has a shorter tail, flatter blade-like canine teeth, and five toes on each back foot.

the animal on the right is a modern felid: the mainland clouded leopard, neofelis nebulosa. it has a longer tail, thicker conical teeth, and four toes on each back foot.

"False saber-tooth vs False ostrich"

Excellent name for a Nimravid - Pangurban egiae

(Even if from California)

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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time to mass-upload some of the art i’ve done this month! my good pal gryphon commissioned me to do a reference sheet for her silly little octoling man

palaeoart

Although I visited the Bakewell Rock Exchange yesterday on the hunt for nice British fossil specimens, this specimen from an old collection being sold caught my eye. This is a nice example of a Dinictis squalidens - a species of false Sabre-tooth cat (Nimravidae) from the Oligocene white river formations of South Dakota 30 million years ago. These are tough to get hold of and it’s in pretty decent condition. It’s got one complete Sabre (albeit a little weathered) but the fossil skull has all of the key features characteristic of a Dinictis - most notably the elongated canines. The notes that came with this were incredibly detailed showcasing when the fossil was originally purchased in the 80s and even the details of the exact location it was found. It’s a good example of the details that should be kept with any piece in any collection.

you get this unspecified hoplophoneus who was also likely bitten in the head by another of its own kind!

though this particular instance could have been an attack from a cousin in the genus nimravus, there are quite a few other instances of false sabertooth cats shanking each other in the eyes and frontal bones that are likely intraspecific (same-species). most frontal bone attacks show evidence of healing and thus failed, but the ones that get into the eye sockets tend to be killing blows!