Stenoplesictis
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| Stenoplesictis | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Stenoplesictis cayluxi mandibles, National Museum of Natural History, France | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Family: | †Stenoplesictidae |
| Genus: | †Stenoplesictis Filhol, 1880 |
| Type species | |
| †Stenoplesictis cayluxi Filhol, 1880 | |
| Other species | |
Species pending reassessment
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Stenoplesictis is an extinct genus of enigmatic aeluroid carnivoran restricted to western Europe that lived during the Oligocene epoch. It was named by Henri Filhol in 1880 and contains the type species S. cayluxi as well as two other species, S. minor and S. crocheti. While several additional species from Asia and Africa had been assigned to it, S. muhoronii is the only species of Stenoplesictis needing a reassignment to another genus.
Species of Stenoplesictis were generally small-sized, with the smallest one, S. minor, being the size of mongooses of the genus Helogale. Stenoplesictis differs from other stenoplesictid relatives like Palaeoprionodon and Haplogale in several traits, including a flattened upper face of the skull, a narrow snout, and specific differences in the auditory region and dentition. It appeared by the Early Oligocene along with various other carnivorans including other stenoplesictids, and lasted up to the Late Oligocene.
Classification
In 1880, the French palaeontologist Henri Filhol described a maxilla from the French lime phosphate deposits of Caylux, considering it as an unknown mustelid genus. He wrote that the premolars were similar to those of Proailurus but differed by not being as large. Filhol also recorded that the mandible had 3 incisors, 1 canine, 4 premolars, and 2 molars. He erected the genus name Stenoplesictis, referencing it after the fossil mustelid genus Plesictis and creating the species name Stenoplesictis cayluxi.[1][2] The etymology is derived from στενός (Ancient Greek for "narrow") and the genus name Plesictis, which itself means "near weasel" in Ancient Greek.[3] In 1882, in addition to reaffirming the validity of S. cayluxi, described as small-sized in relation to other carnivorans, he went on to name a smaller-sized species S. minor based on several lower jaws with incomplete dental sets.[4]
In 1924, the Americans palaeontologists William Diller Matthew and Walter W. Granger erected Cynodictis? elegans based on lower dentition from the Hsanda Gol Formation of Mongolia, noting that the genus placement is tentative because of the lack of molars.[5] In 1987, German palaeontologist Norbert Schmidt-Kittler erected S. muhoronii based on a maxilla fragment, deriving it from the Kenyan town of Muhoroni near where the type locality of Songhor was found.[6] C? elegans was reclassified to Stenoplesictis as S. elegans by Demberelyin Dashzeveg in 1996, who also erected S. indigenus based on a lower jaw fragment from the eastern Gobi Desert in Mongolia and S. simplex based on a fragmented lower jaw from the Ergilin Dzo Formation.[7] In 1999, French palaeontologists Stéphane Peigné and Louis de Bonis made S. minor a synonym of S. cayluxi, arguing that the purported differences between the two species are too minor to justify separation. They also created the species S. crocheti, stating that it is a species known from cranial evidence from France that was named after J.-Y Crochet, who discovered the Pech du Fraysse locality in 1971. Additionally, they wrote that S. muhoronii, S. indigenus, S. simplex, and S. elegans did not belong to Stenoplesictis, meaning that they needed to be assigned to other genera.[2][8] "S." muhoronii being a species pending reassignment was followed by Michael Morlo et al. (or "and colleagues") in 2007.[9]
In 2015, Naoko Egi et al. erected the genus Alagtsavbaatar, reassigning "S." indigenus to it as A. indigenus. They also made S. simplex a synonym of A. gracilis, previously classified in Palaeoprionodon.[10] S. minor as a species was revived by de Bonis et al. in 2022 when they described a cranium that they assigned to it.[11] "Cynodictis" elegans is not considered to be a species of Stenoplesictis and is also currently pending a reassignment to another genus.[12]
Stenoplesictis is the type genus of the Stenoplesictidae, an extinct family of the suborder Feliformia.[13] Under the suborder, it is classified in the Aeluroidea, sharing close ties with all the extant feliform families like the Felidae, Viverridae, and Herpestidae. The type species of the genus is S. cayluxi.[2] The Stenoplesictidae had previously been considered as a subfamily of the Viverridae, Stenoplesictinae.[14] The origins of the Feliformia can be traced back from the Middle Eocene, with various families diverging from the Late Eocene to the Oligocene.[15] The Stenoplesictidae is very poorly known but has been recorded from the Oligocene of Eurasia and Miocene of Africa.[13][16] Stenoplesictictis was among the stenoplesictid genera that was known exclusively from Europe during the Oligocene.[8] Some authors have argued that the Stenoplesictidae is a paraphyletic family group supported only by dental convergences, therefore not making it taxonomically valid.[10][17] According to Peigné and de Bonis, Stenoplesictis is a primitive genus of feliform but is slightly more derived (or evolutionarily recent) than the extant African palm civet (Nandinia binotata).[2]
