| Leontoceryx Temporal range:
| |
|---|---|
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Suborder: | Feliformia |
| 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]
- ^ Kretzoi, Miklós (1938). "Die Raubtiere von Gombaszög nebst einer Ubersicht der Gesamtfauna" [The predators of Gombaszög together with an overview of the overall fauna] (PDF). Annales historico-naturales Musei nationalis hungarici (in German). 31. Budapest: Hungarian Natural History Museum: 88–157. ISSN 0521-4726.
- ^ Alexejew, A. (1916). "Animaux fossiles du village Novo-Elisavetovka" [Fossil animals from the village of Novo-Elisavetovka]. Tipografiya "Technik. 453.
- ^ Zdansky, O. (1924). "Jungtertiäre Carnivoren Chinas" [Late Tertiary Carnivorans of China]. Paleontologica Sinica (in German). C (2): 129.
- ^ Kretzoi, Miklós (1951). "A Csákvári Hipparion-fauna" [The Hipparion fauna from Csakvar]. Földtani Közlöny (in Hungarian). 81: 392, 410.