Leontoceryx
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| Leontoceryx Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Family: | Felidae |
| Subfamily: | Pantherinae |
| Genus: | †Leontoceryx Kretzoi, 1938 |
| Type species | |
| Leontoceryx bessarabiae Kretzoi, 1938 | |
Leontoceryx is an extinct, little-known genus of pantherine felid. It was named in 1938 by Hungarian palaeontologist Miklós Kretzoi based on a partial upper jaw fossil with only three teeth present.[1]
The holotype specimen was originally described in 1916 and assigned to Machairodus schlosseri by Alexejew,[2] though Otto Zdansky in 1924 expressed doubt as to that identification based on Alexejew's illustration, which lacked the chin ridge seen in M. schlosseri and did have a groove on the canine tooth characteristic of felines.[3]
A second specimen, a single lower canine tooth, was described by Kretzoi in 1951. It came from a locality near Csákvár, Hungary, and was dated back to the Late Miocene.[4]
