Question 1

How do you say Barbourofelis?

Accepted Answer

You say it bar-BYOOR-oh-FEE-lis. Break it into four chunks: bar, then BYOOR, then oh, then FEE-lis. The BYOOR part trips most people up so say it like the word pure but with a B in front. Put the stress on the BYOOR syllable and the FEE syllable and you will sound like a paleontologist instantly.

Question 2

What does Barbourofelis mean?

Accepted Answer

The name means Barbour's cat in a mix of a personal name and Latin. It was named after Erwin Hinckley Barbour, a famous paleontologist who studied fossils in Nebraska. The second half of the name, felis, is the Latin word for cat. So every time you say Barbourofelis you are literally saying the name of a 19th century scientist followed by the word cat.

Question 3

Was Barbourofelis a real saber-toothed cat?

Accepted Answer

This is one of the most interesting things about Barbourofelis: it was NOT a true saber-toothed cat. It belonged to a completely separate family called Nimravidae, sometimes called false saber-tooths. True saber-toothed cats like Smilodon belong to a different family, Felidae. Barbourofelis and Smilodon look almost identical but are about as closely related as a cat and a mongoose. They evolved the same giant fangs completely independently.

Question 4

How big was Barbourofelis?

Accepted Answer

Barbourofelis was roughly the size of a modern African lion, around 5 to 6 feet long and weighing somewhere between 300 and 400 pounds. But it was probably more heavily built than a lion, with a thicker neck and more powerful shoulders designed for taking down large struggling prey. Its skull was especially massive and reinforced compared to similarly sized cats today.

Question 5

What did Barbourofelis eat?

Accepted Answer

Barbourofelis was a meat-eating predator at the very top of its food chain. It most likely hunted large mammals that lived alongside it in ancient North America, including ancient three-toed horses, early camels, and other large herbivores of the Miocene epoch. It was almost certainly an ambush hunter, using cover to get close before making a short explosive attack and delivering a precise killing bite with those enormous saber teeth.

Question 6

How big were the teeth of Barbourofelis?

Accepted Answer

The upper canine teeth of Barbourofelis fricki could reach over 6 inches in length, which is longer than most adult human hands. These sabers were flattened like blades rather than round like a cone, with serrated edges for slicing. Proportionally they were among the largest saber teeth of any known predator relative to its body size. The lower jaw had a deep bony flange that covered and protected the sabers like a sheath when the mouth was closed.

Question 7

When did Barbourofelis go extinct?

Accepted Answer

Barbourofelis disappeared from the fossil record around 7 million years ago, near the end of the Miocene epoch. This was millions of years before the famous saber-toothed cat Smilodon ever appeared on Earth. Scientists think changes in the prey animals available during the late Miocene may have contributed to its extinction, as the large mammals it relied on were replaced by different species. Barbourofelis was also one of the very last nimravids, and when it died out, an entire ancient predator family that had existed for over 30 million years was gone.

Question 8

Is Barbourofelis related to the nimravids?

Accepted Answer

Yes, Barbourofelis actually IS a nimravid. It belongs to the subfamily Barbourofelinae within the family Nimravidae. Nimravids are sometimes called false saber-tooths because they look so much like true saber-toothed cats but are actually a completely separate evolutionary lineage. Barbourofelis was one of the most advanced and last-surviving members of this ancient family, representing the final flourishing of a group that first appeared over 40 million years ago.

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