Saber-toothed Cat - Saber-tooth Evolutionary Tree

Saber-tooth Evolutionary Tree

All saber-tooth mammals lived between 33.7 million and 9,000 years ago, but the evolutionary lines that led to the various saber-tooth genera started to diverge much earlier. It is thus a polyphyletic grouping.

The lineage that led to Thylacosmilus was the first to split off, in the late Cretaceous. It is a marsupial, and thus more closely related to kangaroos and opossums than the felines. The creodonts diverged next, and then the nimravids, before the blossoming of the truly feline saber-tooths.

• Class Mammalia
  • Subclass Marsupialia (diverged ?, in the Cretaceous)
    • Order †Sparassodonta (an extinct group of marsupial carnivores)
      • Family †Borhyaenidae
      • Family †Thylacosmilidae
        • †Patagosmilus
        • †Anachlysictis
        • †Thylacosmilus
  • Subclass Placentalia
    • Order †Creodonta (diverged ?, in the Paleocene)
      • Family †Hyaenodontidae
        • †Hyaenodon
        • †Boualitomus
        • †Laekitherium
        • †Metapterodon
        • †Triacodon
        • †Parvagula
        • †Machaeroides
    • Order Carnivora
      • Family †Nimravidae (diverged from the feliforms 48–55 Ma BP, in the late Eocene)
        • Subfamily †Nimravinae (Dinictis)
        • Subfamily †Hoplophoninae
      • Suborder Feliformia ('cat-like' carnivores)
        • Family †Barbourofelidae (sister taxa to Felidae)
        • Family Felidae (true cats)
          • Subfamily †Machairodontinae (diverged ?, in the ?)
            • Tribe †Homotheriini
              • †Homotherium
              • †Machairodus
              • †Xenosmilus
            • Tribe †Metailurini
              • †Dinofelis
              • †Metailurus
            • Tribe †Smilodontini
              • †Megantereon
              • †Paramachairodus
              • †Smilodon