Feliopsis
| Feliopsis | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Holotype skull (1) viewed from above | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Infraclass: | Placentalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Family: | Felidae |
| Subfamily: | Pantherinae |
| Genus: | †Feliopsis Stremme, 1911 |
| Type species | |
| †Feliopsis palaeojavanica Stremme, 1911 | |
| Other species | |
| |
| Synonyms | |
| |
Feliopsis is an extinct genus of pantherine felid known from the Pleistocene of Java. Following the discovery of Java Man, the holotype (name-bearing) specimen of Homo erectus, at the Trinil Site in Java, Indonesia, German anthropologist Emil Selenka planned on launching an expedition to recover more H. erectus remains. However, after his death in 1902, his wife, Margarethe Selenka, took over the expedition's leadership. Between 1907-08,[1] the expedition unearthed Pleistocene-aged fossils from the site,[2] including the skull of a large, tiger-sized cat. In 1911, German geologist Hermann Stremme scientifically described the fossil as coming from a new genus and species of huge cat named Feliopsis palaeojavanica.[3][4] The skull was later deposited at the Natural History Museum of Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany under specimen number NKHUB 30002.[5] In 1933, German-Dutch researcher Gustav Heinrich Ralph von Koenigswald considered Feliopsis a synonym (the same taxon) of the previously named Panthera tigris trinilensis, a subspecies of tiger.[4][6][7] Dutch researcher L. D. Brongersma supported Koenigswald's conclusions in a 1935 article, leaving Feliopsis forgotten. This synonymy was based on comparable tooth characteristics between the two,[7] although a 2026 paper by German scientist Hermut Hemmer proposed that Feliopsis is a valid taxon.[why?] Furthermore, Hemmer concluded that the Thai species Pachypanthera piriyai was actually a species or in a subgenus of Feliopsis.[4]
References
[edit]- ↑ Tattersall, Ian (1996). The Fossil Trail: How We Know What We Think We Know about Human Evolution (1. ed.). New York Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 44–45. ISBN 978-0-19-506101-7.
- ↑ Huffman, Frank; Berkhout, Aart W. J.; Albers, Paul C. H.; Vos, John de; Aziz, Fachroel (2022-10-17). "Geology and Discovery Record of the Trinil Pithecanthropus erectus Site, Java". PaleoAnthropology. 2022 (2). doi:10.48738/2022.iss2.83. ISSN 1545-0031.
- ↑ Stremme, Hermann (1911). "Die Säugetiere mit Ausnahme der Proboscidier. In M. L. Selenka, & M. Blanckenhorn (Eds.)" [The mammals, with the exception of the Proboscidea.]. Die Pithecanthropus-Schichten auf Java. Geologische und paläontologische Ergebnisse der Trinil-Expedition (1907 und 1908). 1. Leipzig: Engelmann Verlag: 82–150.
- 1 2 3 Hemmer, Helmut (2026-06-30). "Feliopsis Stremme, 1911 (Mammalia, Carnivora, Felidae) – a Southeast Asian pantherine branch of potential crocodile hunters, hidden for five million years and forgotten for a century". Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments. doi:10.1007/s12549-026-00713-5. ISSN 1867-1608.
- ↑ Baryshnikov, G. F. (2016). "Late Pleistocene Felidae remains (Mammalia, Carnivora) from Geographical Society Cave in the Russian Far East" (PDF). Proceedings of the Zoological Institute. 320 (1): 84–120.
- ↑ Hemmer, Helmut (1971). "Fossil mammals of Java. II. Zur Fossilgeschichte des Tigers (Panthera tigris (L.)) in Java". Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen. Ser. B. 74 (1): 35–52.
- 1 2 Brongersma, L. D. (1935-01-01). "Notes on some recent and fossil cats, chiefly from the Malay Archipelago". Zoologische Mededelingen. 18 (1): 1–89. ISSN 0024-0672.