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The iconic sabretooth Homotherium is thought to have hunted cooperatively, but the origin of this behaviour and correlated morphological adaptations are largely unexplored. Here we report the most primitive species of Amphimachairodus ( Amphimachairodus hezhengensis sp. nov.), a member of Machairodontini basal to Homotherium , from the Linxia Basin, northeastern border of the Tibetan Plateau (9.8–8.7 Ma). The long snout, laterally oriented and posteriorly located orbit of Amphimachairodus suggest a better ability to observe the surrounding environment, rather than targeting single prey, pointing to an adaptation to the open environment or social behaviour. A pathological forepaw of Amphimachairodus provides direct evidence of partner care. Our analyses of trait evolutionary rates support that traits correlated with killing behaviour and open environment adaptation evolved prior to other traits, suggesting that changes in hunting behaviour may be the major evolutionary driver in the early evolution of the lineage. A. hezhengensis represents one of the most important transitions in the evolution of Machairodontini, leading to adaptation in open environments and contributing to their further dispersal and radiation worldwide. This rapid morphological change is likely to be correlated with increasingly arid environments caused by the rise of the Tibetan Plateau, and competition from abundant large carnivores in this area.

The fossil record of Afrosmilini (Nimravidae, Barbourofelinae) in Africa is reviewed. New material from the middle Miocene of Maboko leads to reassessment of the taxonomic allocations of some speci...

The Early Pleistocene of Eurasia is marked by significant climatic, environmental, and faunal shifts and is the time during which Homo first appears in the Eurasian fossil record. To better characterize the environments that were available to these hominins, accurate data regarding the faunal composition of eastern European sites are necessary, as this is the region through which Homo is hypothesized to have dispersed into Europe. Here we present updated and revised taxonomy and biochronology for sites in the Olteţ River Valley (ORV) of central Romania. The site of Graunceanu is one of the most fossiliferous deposits from this time. Excavations and descriptions of the ORV sites took place during the 1960–1980s, but since that time many taxonomic revisions have been published. Here, we present a reassessment and update of the fauna from the ORV sites. We report several new taxa (e.g., Pachystruthio, Smutsia) and expand the known biogeographic range for other taxa (e.g., Puma pardoides). Our biochronological assessment of this updated taxonomy is consistent with previous reports, though with some refinement. We suggest Graunceanu is Late Villafranchian (~2.2–1.9 Ma) and compositionally similar to the sites of Saint-Vallier (France) and Vatera (Greece). Similarly, the La Pietris assemblage was likely deposited >1.7 Ma. The younger site of Fântâna lui Mitilan was deposited after 1.8 Ma, and perhaps as recently as 1.1 Ma. Thus, the ORV faunal assemblages provide an excellent record of nearly the entire span of the Late Villafranchian for both central Romania and eastern Europe.

Stable isotope palaeoecology of fossil mammals is a key research tool for understanding the environmental context of hominin evolution in the Plio-Pleistocene of Africa. Well studied mammal groups include bovids, suids, equids, proboscideans and primates, but to date there has been no in-depth study of modern and fossil carnivores. Here we produce an Africa-wide oxygen and carbon enamel isotope dataset for modern carnivores and compare it with fossil carnivore data sampled from the Plio-Pleistocene Omo Group of the Turkana Basin, Kenya. Comparison of modern carnivore carbon isotopes with satellite images of land cover indicates that carnivore δ13C is related to the proportion of woody cover in the local environment. Modern carnivore oxygen isotopes are strongly influenced by the δ18O of meteoric water, through drinking from standing water and through prey body fluids. Carbon isotope data from fossil carnivores shows close agreement with palaeovegetation reconstructions from δ13C of palaeosol carbonates from the same geological Members, and a similar long-term trend in δ13C values through time (4 Ma to 1 Ma), reflecting a gradual increase in the proportion of C4 grasses in the Turkana Basin. This increase in the δ13C of large carnivores is consistent with the evidence from other mammalian groups for an increase in the proportion of grazers compared to browsers and mixed feeders during this time interval. Two distinct trends within oxygen versus carbon isotope space indicates that the fossil carnivores lived during two distinct climatic regimes – one in which palaeo-lake Turkana was freshwater, and one in which the lake resembled its modern-day hyperalkaline state. These two climatic states most likely represent the end-members of precessionally-driven rainfall extremes over the Ethiopian Highlands. This indicates that each studied faunal assemblage from the Omo Group is a time- and climate-averaged palimpsest; this has significant implications for the interpretation of environmental signals and community palaeoecology derived from Turkana Basin fossil mammals, including early hominins.

The evolution of the brain at the origin of Carnivora remains poorly understood, largely owing to the limited number of cranial endocasts known from Carnivoramorpha and basal crown Carnivora. Here, we use x-ray computed tomography to create digital endocasts of two early carnivores, Quercygale angustidens and Gustafsonia cognita. Quercygale angustidens is generally regarded as the sister taxon to Carnivora and Nimravidae and is thus of great interest to further our understanding of the evolutionary changes that occurred at the origin of Carnivora. Gustafsonia cognita provides a comparison to a contemporary crown carnivoran. We describe the endocasts of these two taxa, placing them in the context of carnivoramorphan phylogeny. Both endocasts preserve the cerebellum in great detail, resulting in a better understanding of the morphology of this part of the brain in early carnivores. Gustafsonia cognita, despite its small size, geological age and basal position, displays a sulcal pattern typical of Amphicyonidae, reaffirming its position within the family. Nimravids; and early carnivorans, such as Gustafsonia cognita, Proailurus lemanensis and Hesperocyon gregarius, have more expanded neocortices than Quercygale angustidens. Current evidence suggests that the increase in gyrification in basal Carnivoramorpha occurred mainly through elongation of existing sulci and entered a new phase at the origin of crown Carnivora. Additional sulci appeared in early members of the order, resulting in distinctive sulcal patterns in the different carnivoran families. Nevertheless, more endocasts of basal carnivorans and carnivoramorphans are needed to better understand the processes driving the evolution of the brain in this group.

While the anthropogenic impact on ecosystems today is evident, it remains unclear if the detrimental effect of hominins on co‐occurring biodiversity is a recent phenomenon or has also been the pattern for earlier hominin species. We test this using the East African carnivore fossil record. We analyse the diversity of carnivores over the last four million years and investigate whether any decline is related to an increase in hominin cognitive capacity, vegetation changes or climatic changes. We find that extinction rates in large carnivores correlate with increased hominin brain size and with vegetation changes, but not with precipitation or temperature changes. While temporal analyses cannot distinguish between the effects of vegetation changes and hominins, we show through spatial analyses of contemporary carnivores in Africa that only hominin causation is plausible. Our results suggest that substantial anthropogenic influence on biodiversity started millions of years earlier than currently assumed., While the anthropogenic impact on ecosystems today is evident, it remains unclear if the detrimental effect of the human lineage on co‐occurring biodiversity is a recent phenomenon or has also been the pattern for earlier hominin species. Focusing on fossil data from East Africa, the cradle of mankind, we find support for a strong negative effect on co‐occurring biodiversity caused by our ancestors already in the Pliocene. Our results suggest that substantial anthropogenic influence on biodiversity started millions of years earlier than currently assumed.

The oldest felid specimen in the New World is a cranium from Ginn Quarry, Nebraska. We present a detailed description of the external brain anatomy of this specimen as inferred from its cranial endocast. Compared with modern felids, the Ginn Quarry specimen has a dorsoventrally lower cerebrum, with only three major sulci and a laterally narrower frontal lobe. The cerebellum is exposed to a large extent, and the posterior cerebellar vermis is straight rather than twisted as in modern felids. The shape of its cerebrum and the cortical sulcal pattern are similar to those of Proailurus and Hyperailurictis. The encephalization of the Ginn Quarry felid is the same as that of Hyperailurictis and slightly smaller than in Proailurus. The degree of cortical folding is intermediate between the conditions seen in Proailurus and Hyperailurictis. The Ginn Quarry felid differs from Proailurus in having a better developed frontal lobe, a shorter cerebellum and slightly longer peduncles. Based on brain anatomy, we suggest that the Ginn Quarry felid should not be dismissed as a ‘proailurine-grade’ felid. Instead, it should be either considered a primitive form of Hyperailurictis or assigned to a new genus.

We report on a nearly complete cranium of Ekweeconfractus amorui gen. et sp. nov. (Hyaenodonta, Teratodontinae), from the early Miocene of Moruorot, Kenya. The cranium is dorsoventrally compressed, but sufficiently intact to allow for digital reconstruction of the neurocranium, resulting in a digital endocast that gives us a first glimpse into teratodontine brain morphology. The virtual endocast is one of the most well preserved of any hyaenodont known to date, with many of the cranial nerves and blood vessels identifiable. Endocasts are known from only a handful of hyaenodont species and little work has been done on hyaenodont brains in recent decades. To better understand the evolution of the brain in these animals, we place the endocast of E. amorui gen. et sp. nov., as well as several other previously described endocasts, in the latest phylogenetic framework. This analysis suggests that the expansion of the neocortex occurred convergently in several clades of Hyaenodonta. Our study provides a basis for future research on brain evolution in Hyaenodonta.

During the Miocene, Hyaenidae was a highly diverse family of Carnivora that has since been severely reduced to four species: the bone-cracking spotted, striped, and brown hyenas, and the specialized insectivorous aardwolf. Previous studies investigated the evolutionary histories of the spotted and brown hyenas, but little is known about the remaining two species. Moreover, the genomic underpinnings of scavenging and insectivory, defining traits of the extant species, remain elusive. Here, we generated an aardwolf genome and analyzed it together with the remaining three species to reveal their evolutionary relationships, genomic underpinnings of their scavenging and insectivorous lifestyles, and their respective genetic diversities and demographic histories. High levels of phylogenetic discordance suggest gene flow between the aardwolf lineage and the ancestral brown/striped hyena lineage. Genes related to immunity and digestion in the bone-cracking hyenas and craniofacial development in the aardwolf showed the strongest signals of selection, suggesting putative key adaptations to carrion and termite feeding, respectively. A family-wide expansion in olfactory receptor genes suggests that an acute sense of smell was a key early adaptation. Finally, we report very low levels of genetic diversity within the brown and striped hyenas despite no signs of inbreeding, putatively linked to their similarly slow decline in effective population size over the last ∼2 million years. High levels of genetic diversity and more stable population sizes through time are seen in the spotted hyena and aardwolf. Taken together, our findings highlight how ecological specialization can impact the evolutionary history, demographics, and adaptive genetic changes of an evolutionary lineage., Main funding for the project was provided through ERC consolidator grant # 310763 (Geneflow) to M.H. D.A.D. was funded by an Australian Research Council grant (DE190100544). D.L.D. is funded through “Clinician Scientist Programm, Medizinische Fakultät der Universität Leipzig.” A.W. is funded through “Leibniz Competition Fund (SAW-2018-IZW-3-EpiRank)”

Motivation Body mass is one of the most important determinants of animal ecology. Unlike other important traits it is also readily inferable from fossils and it is therefore one of the only traits that can be directly analysed and compared between fossil and contemporary communities. Despite this, no comprehensive database of the body mass of larger clades of extinct species exists. Analysis of fossils has therefore been restricted to small clades or to smaller, potentially biased, subsets of species. We here describe CarniFoss, an open-access database of body masses of all 1,322 extinct species of non-pinniped Carnivoramorpha and two related extinct groups of carnivorous mammals, Hyaenodonta and Oxyaenidae. Main types of variables contained We gathered lengths of teeth of fossil and extant species and body mass for extant species and a few of the best-known fossil species. Following this we estimated body mass for all species through phylogenetic imputation. Spatial location and grain Global, terrestrial. Time period and grain We collected data on all known species within the focal groups. The known species all lived in the Palaeogene, Neogene or Quaternary (i.e., the last 66 Myr). Major taxa and level of measurement We searched for data on reported tooth size of all described species of Carnivoramorpha (excluding pinnipeds) and selected extinct related groups (Hyaenodonta and Oxyaenidae). We combined this with measured body mass for all extant species and inferred body mass based on long-bones for selected extinct species, as well as a species-level phylogeny including all extant and extinct species in the group, and inferred the body mass for all species using phylogenetic imputation. Software format Data are provided as a series of .csv files, with all metadata in a separate PDF file.

[Background] The evolutionary relationships of Felidae during their Early-Middle Miocene radiation is contentious. Although the early common ancestors have been subsumed under the grade-group Pseudaelurus, this group is thought to be paraphyletic, including the early ancestors of both modern cats and extinct sabretooths. [Methods] Here, we sequenced a draft nuclear genome of Smilodon populator, dated to 13,182 ± 90 cal BP, making this the oldest palaeogenome from South America to date, a region known to be problematic for ancient DNA preservation. We analysed this genome, together with genomes from other extinct and extant cats to investigate their phylogenetic relationships. [Results] We confirm a deep divergence (~20.65 Ma) within sabre-toothed cats. Through the analysis of both simulated and empirical data, we show a lack of gene flow between Smilodon and contemporary Felidae. [Conclusions] Given that some species traditionally assigned to Pseudaelurus originated in the Early Miocene ~20 Ma, this indicates that some species of Pseudaelurus may be younger than the lineages they purportedly gave rise to, further supporting the hypothesis that Pseudaelurus was paraphyletic., This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No [681396]), (project Extinction Genomics). This project has also received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no. FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IEF-298820. The work was also supported by the Independent Research Fund Denmark | Natural Sciences, Forskningsprojekt 1, grant no. 8021-00218B to EDL.

Dispersal events from Asia have played an important role in shaping some of the evolutionary faunas of Cenozoic large terrestrial mammals of North America (Qiu, 2003; Figueirido et al., 2012, 2019)...

We describe small-sized specimens of the metailurine felid Dinofelis from a new Plio-Pleistocene site in North Africa. Dinofelis is a genus of saber-toothed cats mainly recorded from East and South Africa with numerous leopard to jaguar-sized species. The described specimens, clearly smaller than all the other African Dinofelis, resemble isolated remains from the Late Pliocene of France and the Early Pleistocene of Africa. Present evidence suggests that our form represents a new species and/or new lineage of Dinofelis, smaller and probably occupying a different ecological niche compared to the previously known members of the genus, and thus it adds complexity to the high intraspecific competition among large carnivorans in the Plio-Pleistocene of Africa., This work has been funded by Palarq Foundation, Spanish Ministry of Culture and Sport (Ref: 42-T002018N0000042853 and 170- T002019N0000038589), Direction of Cultural Heritage (Ministry of Culture and Communication, Morocco), Faculty of Sciences (Mohamed 1r University of Oujda,Morocco), INSAP (Institut National des Sciences de l'Archeologie et du Patrimoine), Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (Ref: CGL2016-80975-P, CGL2016-80000-P, PGC2018-095489-B-I00 and PGC2018-093925-B-C31), Agencia Estatal de Investigacion e European Regional Development Fund of the European Union (CGL2017-82654-P, AEI/FEDER-UE), the Generalitat de Catalunya (CERCA Program) which is financed by European Community Research Infrastructure Action under the FP7 “Capacities” Program and Research Groups Support (2017 SGR 836 and 2017SGR 859). R.S-R, M.G.CH., and P.S. research is funded by CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya. J.M.-M. is member of consolidated research group 2017 SGR 116 (AGAUR, Generalitat de Catalunya). A.R.-H. is the beneficiary of a postdoctoral scholar ship from the MICINN, Subprograma Juan de la Cierva (IJC-037447-I) and member of the Consolidated Research Group 2017 SGR 1040 of the Generalitat de Catalunya. A.M.A and M.F. are beneficiaries of a fellowship from the Erasmus Mundus Program to do the Master in Quaternary and Prehistory at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Tarragona, Spain). The Institut Catala de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolucio Social (IPHES-CERCA) has received financial support fromthe Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through the ‘María de Maeztu’ program for Units of Excellence (CEX2019-000945-M)., With funding from the Spanish government through the "Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence" accreditation (CEX2019-000945-M).

During the Miocene, Hyaenidae was a highly diverse family of Carnivora that has since been severely reduced to four extant genera, each of which contains only a single species. These species include the bone-cracking spotted, striped, and brown hyenas, and the specialised insectivorous aardwolf. Previous genome studies have analysed the evolutionary histories of the spotted and brown hyenas, but little is known about the remaining two species. Moreover, the genomic underpinnings of scavenging and insectivory, defining traits of the extant species, remain elusive. To tackle these questions, we generated an aardwolf genome and analysed it together with those from the other three species. We provide new insights into the evolutionary relationships between the species, the genomic underpinnings of their scavenging and insectivorous lifestyles, and their respective genetic diversities and demographic histories. High levels of phylogenetic discordance within the family suggest gene flow between the aardwolf lineage and the ancestral brown/striped hyena lineage. Genes related to immunity and digestion in the bone-cracking hyenas and craniofacial development in the aardwolf showed the strongest signals of selection in their respective lineages, suggesting putative key adaptations to carrion or termite feeding. We also found a family-wide expansion in olfactory receptor genes suggesting that an acute sense of smell was a key early adaptation for the Hyaenidae family. Finally, we report very low levels of genetic diversity within the brown and striped hyenas despite no signs of inbreeding, which we putatively link to their similarly slow decline in Neover the last ∼2 million years. We found much higher levels of genetic diversity in both the spotted hyena and aardwolf and more stable population sizes through time. Taken together, these findings highlight how ecological specialisation can impact the evolutionary history, demographics, and adaptive genetic changes of a lineage.

Westbury et al. reveal the genome-level evolutionary relationships between extinct cave and extant spotted hyena., The genus Crocuta (African spotted and Eurasian cave hyenas) includes several closely related extinct and extant lineages. The relationships among these lineages, however, are contentious. Through the generation of population-level paleogenomes from late Pleistocene Eurasian cave hyena and genomes from modern African spotted hyena, we reveal the cross-continental evolutionary relationships between these enigmatic hyena lineages. We find a deep divergence (~2.5 Ma) between African and Eurasian Crocuta populations, suggesting that ancestral Crocuta left Africa around the same time as early Homo. Moreover, we find discordance between nuclear and mitochondrial phylogenies and evidence for bidirectional gene flow between African and Eurasian Crocuta after the lineages split, which may have complicated prior taxonomic classifications. Last, we find a number of introgressed loci that attained high frequencies within the recipient lineage, suggesting some level of adaptive advantage from admixture.

During the Late Quaternary Extinction event South America lost ∼83% of all its late Pleistocene megafaunal genera. As in other regions of the world, the debate about the possible drivers behind these extinctions revolves around the role of humans arriving into the continent and on the effect of the climatic changes characteristic of the Pleistocene-Holocene transition. The availability of precise chronological information, in order to estimate the timing of extinction of the different taxa affected, is critical for solving such debate. Here we present an updated study of the late Pleistocene mammalian deposits from Casa del Diablo Cave (CdD) in the Altiplano of Peru. The study includes an updated list of the mammalian faunas found in the cave and 11 taxon-specific XAD radiocarbon dates from extinct and extant megafauna bones. We compare this new chronology to the timing of major environmental changes and human arrival in the area, as well as with other megafaunal discoveries from the high Andes. The radiocarbon dates from CdD fall in the time window between 23 and 12.8 cal kyr BP. Compared to other records of extinct megafauna in the high Andes, the one from CdD presents in general younger occurrences. No temporal overlap between humans and extinct megafauna emerges from comparing first dates of appearance of humans in the Altiplano, and last appearance dates of extinct megafauna from CdD. However, the possibility of temporal overlap among the records becomes evident when we compare confidence intervals calculated to estimate true times of human arrival and megafaunal local extinctions.

Understanding why some clades contain more species than others is a major challenge in evolutionary biology, and variation in dispersal ability and its connection to diversification rate may be part of the explanation. Several studies have suggested a negative relationship between dispersal capacity and diversification rate among living mammals. However, this pattern may differ when also considering extinct species, given known extinction biases. The colonization of new areas by various lineages may be associated with both diversity increases in those colonising lineages and declines in the lineages already present. Past diversity declines are, however, effectively impossible to infer based on phylogenies of extant taxa, and the underlying process may, therefore, be difficult to determine. Here we produce a novel species-level phylogeny of all known extant and extinct species of the order Carnivora and related extinct groups (1,723 species in total) to show that there is instead a positive relationship between dispersal rate and diversification rate when all extinct species are included. Species that disperse between continents leave more descendant species than non-dispersers, and dispersing species belong to lineages that at the time of dispersal were diversifying faster than the average non-disperser. Our study showcases the importance of combining fossils and phylogenies to better understand evolutionary and biogeographic patterns.

Fort Ternan is a middle Miocene (c. 13.7-13.8 Ma) site famous for its fossils of Kenyapithecus wickeri Leakey, 1962, considered the earliest African hominoid. Herein, the Carnivora and Hyaenodonta from this site are described and placed in their temporal context, showing the middle Miocene to be a time of transition from archaic carnivores of the early Miocene and carnivores of more modern aspect from the late Miocene. Fort Ternan includes: Amphicyonidae represented by ?Myacyon peignei n. sp., a new form distinguished by its hypercarnivorous m1, P4 with large protocone shelf, and M1 with reduced lingual shelf; Barbourofelidae, represented by a derived form; Percrocutidae, represented by abundant material of Percrocuta tobieni Crusafont & Aguirre, 1971; Viverridae, represented by the paradoxurines Kanuites lewisae Dehghani & Werdelin, 2008, and cf. Orangictis Morales & Pickford, 2005, and a putative viverrine; and Hyaenodonta represented by the teratodontine Dissopsalis pyroclasticus Savage, 1965 and a very large hyainailourine. This assemblage is a melange of forms harkening back to the early Miocene (the Hyaenodonta and Amphicyonidae), an evolving, still extant lineage (Viverridae), and more typical late Miocene forms (derived Barbourofelidae and Percrocutidae).

We present material of the family Hyaenidae from Cooper’s Cave, an early Pleistocene (ca 1.5 Ma) fossil-bearing site in Gauteng, South Africa. This site is exceptionally rich in Carnivora, including five species of Hyaenidae: Chasma-porthetes nitidula, Crocuta ultra, Parahyaena brunnea, Hyaena hyaena and cf. Proteles sp. This diversity is greater than that of the entire family in the modern fauna and is matched at other sites in the vicinity of Cooper’s Cave. This raises issues about time averaging and the carrying capacity of the palaeoenvironment that require resolution if we are to properly understand the environments in which Paranthropus robustus, present at Cooper’s Cave, and other early hominins evolved. In addition, the presence of several hyaenid species with bone-eating/collecting capabilities raises questions about the identity of the accumulators of fossil bone assemblages that have yet to be fully resolved.

The Malapa fossil assemblage was likely accumulated as a result of a death trap. Given this, the carnivoran species found there must have lived in proximity, close proximity for the smaller species, to the site, offering the possibility of expanding our interpretation of the habitats available to Australopithecus sediba via pinpoint palaeoenvironmental interpretation. To date, the identified carnivorans are the most abundant identified non-hominin taxa at Malapa, and given their territorial behaviour, are important when interpreting the palaeoecology of the site. The extinct false saber-tooth felid (Dinofelis barlowi) suggests that the presence of closed environments and the ancestral form of modern water mongoose (Atilax mesotes) indicates the presence of water in the vicinity. Canids generally support the presence of open habitats. The first appearance in the fossil record of Vulpes skinneri and Felis nigripes indicates the presence of drier open grassland/scrub. The Malapa carnivorans support widespread shifts in carnivore turnover circa 2.0 Ma in Africa and suggest, together with other lines of evidence, the occurrence of a regional transitioning environment during the time of Au. sediba.

Stephane Peigne nous a quittes le 4 Decembre 2017 apres avoir lutte avec courage pendant des mois contre une terrible maladie. Il avait espere l'avoir vaincue en 2016 mais elle l'a rattrape inexorablement. Il etait ne en 1973 dans une petite commune de l'Est de la France et avait suivi sa scolarite dans la region jusqu'a son Baccalaureat. Il commenca des etudes superieures a l'universite de Nancy, dans un cursus en Sciences de la Nature et de la Vie, pour les poursuivre a l'Universite de Bourgogne par une licence de Biologie suivie d'une maitrise d'Ecologie. Cependant cette orientation vers la recherche en biologie evolutive et ecologique ne lui suffisait plus et, desireux d'inclure le temps dans les processus evolutifs, il decida de bifurquer vers la paleontologie, en particulier celle des vertebres, en s'inscrivant au Diplome d'Etudes Approfondies (DEA) en Paleontologie de l'Universite de Montpellier. C'est ce changement de direction qui lui permit de rencontrer Thanh Thuyh Nguyen Tu, sa future epouse et mere de ses deux enfants. Il s'orienta ensuite en 1996 vers l'Universite de Poitiers pour commencer, sous la direction de l'un de nous (LdeB) une these qu'il termina avec succes en 2000. C'est aussi a Poitiers qu'il obtint, 10 ans plus tard, son Habilitation a Diriger des Recherches (HDR).

We describe new carnivoran fossils from Kalodirr and Moruorot, two late Early Miocene sites in the Lothidok Formation of West Turkana, Kenya. The fossils include a new species of viverrid, Kichechia savagei sp. nov., a new genus and species of felid, Katifelis nightingalei gen. et sp. nov., and an unidentified musteloid. We also report new records of the amphicyonid Cynelos macrodon. These new fossils increase the known diversity of African Early Miocene carnivorans and highlight regional differences in Africa.

Eucyon is a paraphyletic genus of jackal-sized canids that predated the appearance of true Canis in North America, Eurasia and Africa. In this study, we describe a new species of Eucyon, E. kuta, from the Woranso-Mille Area, Afar Region, Ethiopia. The new species differs from all other described Eucyon in having the distal cusps of the p4 united into a crest. It may be the youngest Eucyon known from Africa and is larger than described Eucyon from that continent. Other described African Eucyon are briefly reviewed, and we suggest that some material may be referable to foxes (Vulpini), while other material may belong to the small bear-dog Bonisicyon illacabo (Amphicyonidae) or a closely related taxon.

We studied the multivariate morphospace of a sample of 216 extant carnivoran species. Emphasis was placed on statistical patterns below the family level in the five largest families. Canidae and Felidae had small morphospaces, indicating low functional richness. Their species are highly non-randomly located in morphospace, hence low functional evenness. Clades at the subfamily level showed no patterning. Mustelidae had the greatest functional richness and were non-randomly distributed. There was partial subfamily patterning, with Lutrinae standing out as distinct. Herpestidae and Viverridae had intermediate functional richness and were randomly distributed in morphospace, showing high functional evenness. Subfamilial clades showed distinct patterning, especially in Viverridae, where the four subfamilies occupy distinct parts of morphospace.

The Woranso-Mille paleontological study area, located in the central Afar region of Ethiopia, is one of the most important Pliocene sites in eastern Africa. Since the Woranso-Mille Research Project began its investigation in 2005, more than 7,500 mammalian fossils, including hominins, have been collected from 80 vertebrate localities. This paper provides a preliminary assessment of the Woranso-Mille carnivoran record, a record that is of great interest given the high level of species richness of African carnivorans during the middle Pliocene. Craniodental and postcranial material of canids, lutrine mustelids, viverrids, herpestids, machairodontine and feline felids, and hyaenids has been recovered. Thus, this diverse fauna includes not only the largest carnivorans from this time period (e.g., Enhydriodon and Homotherium), but also some of the smallest, including mongooses, civets, genets, and felids, some of which represent new species. However, the diversity of small taxa does not yet approach that found in the roughly contemporaneous Upper Laetolil Beds of Tanzania. In contrast, lutrine mustelids are better represented at Woranso-Mille than at Kanapoi (Kenya) or Laetoli (Tanzania), which is to be expected given the diversity of habitats represented at these sites. While more material from these sites and others are necessary to truly understand the increased diversity within the early to middle Pliocene eastern African carnivoran guild, it is clear that the material from Woranso-Mille has the potential to fill many of the gaps in our knowledge of carnivorans during this time period.

Recent advances in multivariate statistics, and in ancient DNA techniques, have greatly increased understanding of tiger phylogeography. However, regardless of advances in analytical methodology, researchers will continue to need access to specimens for morphological measurements and sampling for genetic analysis. The tiger has become increasingly endangered, and out of the nine putative tiger subspecies, three (Javan, Balinese, and Caspian) have become extinct in the last 100 years, leaving the specimens kept in natural history collections as the only materials available for research. Frustratingly little information is widely available concerning the specimens of these extinct tiger subspecies. We conducted an extensive search for specimens of extinct tiger subspecies, and also developed a simple on-site method to assign unprovenanced and probable Indonesian specimens to either Javan/Balinese or Sumatran subspecies. We located a total of 88 Javan, 11 Balinese, and 46 Caspian tigers, including seven new Javan tigers, and three Balinese tigers that were not widely known previously. These specimens are critical for research in order to understand the intraspecific phylogeny and evolutionary history of the tiger.

The partial skull of a lion from Natodomeri, northwest Kenya is described. The Natodomeri sites are correlated with Member I of the Kibish Formation, dated to between 195 ka and ca. 205 ka. The skull is remarkable for its very great size, equivalent to the largest cave lions (Panthera spelaea [Goldfuss, 1810]) of Pleistocene Eurasia and much larger than any previously known lion from Africa, living or fossil. We hypothesize that this individual represents a previously unknown population or subspecies of lion present in the late Middle and Late Pleistocene of eastern Africa rather than being an indication of climate-driven size increase in lions of that time. This raises questions regarding the extent of our understanding of the pattern and causes of lion evolution in the Late Pleistocene.

The 1.977 Ma site of ‘Malapa’ (Gauteng, South Africa) has yielded important new fossils, including the type specimens of the new hominin species Australopithecus sediba. Recently, we reported the first Carnivora specimens to have been recovered from the site. That sample included members of Felidae, Herpestidae and Hyaenidae. That first report also included three associated small canid specimens (an M2, a rib and a posterior mandibular fragment including the P4, M1, coronoid, condylar and angular processes) that we attributed to Vulpes cf. V. chama. In this paper, we compare these specimens to a broad sample of modern and fossil foxes and conclude that these specimens are distinct enough to be referred to a new species, here described and named Vulpes skinneri.

The Early Pliocene is a crucial time period in carnivoran evolution. Holarctic carnivoran faunas suffered a turnover event at the Miocene-Pliocene boundary. This event is also observed in Africa but its onset is later and the process more drawn-out. Kanapoi is one of the earliest faunas in Africa to show evidence of a fauna that is more typical Pliocene than Miocene in character. The taxa recovered from Kanapoi are: Torolutra sp., Enhydriodon (2 species), Genetta sp., Helogale sp., Homotherium sp., Dinofelis petteri, Felis sp., and Parahyaena howelli. Analysis of the broader carnivoran context of which Kanapoi is an example shows that all these taxa are characteristic of Plio-Pleistocene African faunas, rather than Miocene ones. While some are still extant and some went extinct in the Early Pleistocene, P. howelli is unique in both originating and going extinct in the Early Pliocene.