Biology:Feliopsis
Feliopsis is an extinct genus of pantherine felid known from the Pleistocene of Java. The type species, Feliopsis palaeojavanica, was named in 1911 based on a partial skull. Although traditionally interpreted a fossil specimen of the tiger for over 90 years, Feliopsis has subsequently been reconsidered as a separate genus of pantherine. It has also been suggested that Pachypanthera may possibly represent a second species, Feliopsis piriyai.
Discovery and naming
Following the discovery of Java Man, the holotype (name-bearing) specimen of Homo erectus, the German anthropologist Emil Selenka planned on launching an expedition to recover more H. erectus remains at the Trinil Site in Java, Indonesia. 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 type specimen was later accessioned in 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 tiger.[4] In 1935, Dutch researcher L. D. Brongersma supported Koenigswald's conclusions, and subsequent studies followed this interpretation.[6][7] This synonymy was based on comparable tooth characteristics between the two taxa.[6] Contrary to his agreement with the synonymy in 1971,[8] the German researcher Helmut Hemmer proposed in 2026 that Feliopsis is a valid taxon based on its exceptionally deep mandible (lower jaw), elongated premaxilla (frontmost upper jaw bone), and enlarged, conical canine teeth compared to Panthera; the premolar four (P4) is also proportionally smaller compared to the carnassial teeth than those of most Panthera species. Furthermore, Hemmer concluded that the extinct pantherine Pachypanthera piriyai from Thailand possibly represents a second species of Feliopsis.[4]
References
- ↑ 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. https://archive.org/details/fossiltrailhowwe00tatt.
- ↑ 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" (in en). PaleoAnthropology 2022 (2). doi:10.48738/2022.iss2.83. ISSN 1545-0031. https://paleoanthropology.org/ojs/index.php/paleo/article/view/83.
- ↑ Stremme, Hermann (1911). "Die Säugetiere mit Ausnahme der Proboscidier. In M. L. Selenka, & M. Blanckenhorn (Eds.).". Die Pithecanthropus-Schichten auf Java. Geologische und paläontologische Ergebnisse der Trinil-Expedition (1907 und 1908) (Leipzig: Engelmann Verlag) 1: 82-150. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/60936.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 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" (in en). Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments. doi:10.1007/s12549-026-00713-5. ISSN 1867-1608. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12549-026-00713-5.
- ↑ Baryshnikov, G. F. (2016). "Late Pleistocene Felidae remains (Mammalia, Carnivora) from Geographical Society Cave in the Russian Far East.". Proceedings of the Zoological Institute 320 (1): 84-120. https://zin.ru/journals/trudyzin/doc/vol_320_1/TZ_320_1_Baryshnikov.pdf.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Brongersma, L. D. (1935-01-01). "Notes on some recent and fossil cats, chiefly from the Malay Archipelago" (in en). Zoologische Mededelingen 18 (1): 1–89. ISSN 0024-0672. https://repository.naturalis.nl/pub/318121.
- ↑ Hooijer, Dirk Albert (1947). "Pleistocene remains of Panthera tigris (Linnaeus) subspecies from Wanhsien, Szechwan, China, compared with fossil and Recent tigers from other localities". American Museum of Natural History novitates. Publications of the Asiatic Expeditions of the American Museum of Natural History 1346 (149): 1-18. https://digitallibrary.amnh.org/bitstreams/8748071c-6d15-41a8-a8e5-0743180b885b/download.
- ↑ 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.
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