In the late 1960s, a team led by C.S. Churcher and A. MacS. Stalker collected over 1000 vertebrate fossils, mostly representing large herbivorous mammals, from bluffs along the South Saskatchewan River near Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada. The records from this area also include the only documented case of the sabre-toothed cat Smilodon fatalis, but these specimens have not been described or illustrated, and therefore, their identification has never been verified. Here, all felid fossils recovered from the Medicine Hat bluffs are described and identified. We confirm the presence of the machairodontine S. fatalis and three additional taxa: the feline Lynx and the pantherines Panthera cf. P. atrox (American lion) and Panthera cf. P. spelaea (cave lion). Notably, this record of S. fatalis is its first confirmed occurrence in Canada and is a significant northerly range expansion, bringing the global distribution of this species in line with what is typical for a large felid. Should the tentative record of Panthera cf. P. spelaea be correct, this would represent its first occurrence in Alberta and a southeastern range extension, bringing it into the range of P. atrox. The possible presence of both P. atrox and P. spelaea suggests that Late Pleistocene pantherine biogeography in North America may be more complex than previously believed, particularly during relatively warm interglacial periods.
Skip Nav Destination
Article navigation
Research Article|
January 28, 2019
Late Pleistocene records of felids from Medicine Hat, Alberta, including the first Canadian record of the sabre-toothed cat Smilodon fatalis
Ashley R. Reynolds;
a
Department of Natural History, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, ON M5S 1C6, Canada.b
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 3B2, Canada.Corresponding author: Ashley Reynolds (email: [email protected]).
Search for other works by this author on:
Kevin L. Seymour;
Kevin L. Seymour
a
Department of Natural History, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, ON M5S 1C6, Canada.
Search for other works by this author on:
David C. Evans
David C. Evans
a
Department of Natural History, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, ON M5S 1C6, Canada.b
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 3B2, Canada.
Search for other works by this author on:
a
Department of Natural History, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, ON M5S 1C6, Canada.b
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 3B2, Canada.
Kevin L. Seymour
a
Department of Natural History, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, ON M5S 1C6, Canada.
David C. Evans
a
Department of Natural History, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, ON M5S 1C6, Canada.b
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 3B2, Canada.Corresponding author: Ashley Reynolds (email: [email protected]).
Publisher: Canadian Science Publishing
Received:
29 Oct 2018
Accepted:
23 Jan 2019
First Online:
29 Oct 2019
Online ISSN: 1480-3313
Print ISSN: 0008-4077
Published by NRC Research Press
Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences (2019) 56 (10): 1052–1060.
Article history
Received:
29 Oct 2018
Accepted:
23 Jan 2019
First Online:
29 Oct 2019
Citation
Ashley R. Reynolds, Kevin L. Seymour, David C. Evans; Late Pleistocene records of felids from Medicine Hat, Alberta, including the first Canadian record of the sabre-toothed cat Smilodon fatalis. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 2019;; 56 (10): 1052–1060. doi: https://doi.org/10.1139/cjes-2018-0272
Download citation file:
You could not be signed in. Please check your email address / username and password and try again.
Email alerts
Index Terms/Descriptors
Latitude & Longitude
Citing articles via
Related Articles
Pleistocene mammals from Extinction Cave, Belize
Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences
Scimitar cat ( Homotherium serum Cope) from southwestern Alberta, Canada
Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences
Related Book Content
Friesenhahn Cave: Late Pleistocene paleoecology and predator-prey relationships of mammoths with an extinct scimitar cat
Late Cretaceous to Quaternary Strata and Fossils of Texas: Field Excursions Celebrating 125 Years of GSA and Texas Geology, GSA South-Central Section Meeting, Austin, Texas, April 2013
Late Pliocene and Pleistocene History of the Donnelly Ranch Vertebrate Site, Southeastern Colorado
Late Pliocene and Pleistocene History of the Donnelly Ranch Vertebrate Site, Southeastern Colorado
Middle and late Miocene marine mammal assemblages from the Monterey Formation of Orange County, California
Understanding the Monterey Formation and Similar Biosiliceous Units across Space and Time
The geology and paleontology of Ashfall Fossil Beds, a late Miocene (Clarendonian) mass-death assemblage, Antelope County and adjacent Knox County, Nebraska, USA
Geologic Field Trips along the Boundary between the Central Lowlands and Great Plains: 2014 Meeting of the GSA North – Central Section