Xenosmilus hodsonae

[Infinity Blade]

Xenosmilus hodsonae


© @ Qilong

Temporal range: Irvingtonian

Scientific classification:

Life
Domain: Eukaryota
(unranked): Unikonta
(unranked): Opisthokonta
(unranked): Holozoa
(unranked): Filozoa
Kingdom: Animalia
Subkingdom: Eumetazoa
(unranked): Bilateria
Superphylum: Deuterostomia
Phylum: Chordata
Infraphylum: Gnathostomata
Clade: Eugnathostomata
Clade: Teleostomi
Clade: Tetrapoda
Clade: Reptiliomorpha
Clade: Amniota
Clade: Synapsida
Order: Therapsida
Clade: Theriodontia
Clade: Eutheriodonta
Suborder: Cynodontia
Clade: Epicynodontia
Infraorder: Eucynodontia
Parvorder: Probainognathia
Superfamily: Chiniquodontoidea
Clade: Prozostrodontia
Clade: Mammaliaformes
Class: Mammalia
(unranked): Pegasoferae
(unranked): Zooamata
Clade: Holotheria
Superlegion: Trechnotheria
Legion: Cladotheria
Sublegion: Zatheria
Infralegion: Tribosphenida
Subclass: Theria
Clade: Eutheria
Infraclass: Placentalia
Subcohort: Exafroplacentalia
Magnorder: Boreoeutheria
Superorder: Laurasiatheria
(unranked): Ferae
(unranked): Carnivoramorpha
Order: Carnivora
Suborder: Feliformia
Family: Felidae
Subfamily: †Machairodontinae
Tribe: †Homotherini
Genus: †Xenosmilus
Species: †X. hodsonae

Xenosmilus hodsonae is a species of machairodontine, an extinct subfamily of felids. Xenosmilus was found in Florida, particularly in an area where numerous quantities of peccary fossils were recovered (dubbed "hog heaven"). It seems likely Xenosmilus preyed on peccaries. In terms of the morphology of its jaw apparatus, it was in a distinct group of its own from other sabertoothed cats. There were the dirk-toothed cats (eg. Smilodon) with comparatively long, slender maxillary canines and the scimitar-toothed cats (eg. Homotherium) with their maxillary canines shorter and broader than those of the aforementioned group. Unlike in Smilodon, there was no significant spacing between the maxillary canines and incisors in Xenosmilus and based on its jaw morphology, Xenosmilus would have killed its prey by biting off large chunks of flesh until the quarry died of exsanguination.[1]

References:

[1] www.wired.com/2011/10/cookie-cutter-cat-not-as-cute-the-name-sounds/
The above link contains scientific references in turn.

[jhg]

Can I call it the fusion cat? It looks like it's half Smilodon and half Homotherium if you know what I mean.

[Infinity Blade]

Regardless of how the peccaries were accumulated, there is little doubt that Xenosmilus was responsible for the feeding damage on the carcasses. It is also clear that Xenosmilus efficiently and completely consumed nearly all large muscle masses and in the process engaged in some limited durophagy but no bone-cracking. The most common tooth mark morphologies on the Platygonus bones correspond closely to those created by the Xenosmilus incisors and canines, which indicates that this big cat predominantly used its anterior dentition for defleshing. A reasonable body size analog to P. vetus is the modern African warthog, which weighs in at between 50 and 150 kg and falls within Size Class 2 of Brain’s56 mammal body size classification scheme (Table 1). Modern lions and tigers (Panthera tigris), to which Xenosmilus compares favorably in terms of body size, inflict broadly similar levels of damage to carcasses of this size40,47 (Fig. 2).

www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-09480-7

So it looks like Xenosmilus indeed liked to target peccaries, and indeed mostly used its incisors and canines for defleshing carcasses. The latter could lend support to the proposed "cookie-cutter bite" killing method.