Presence of the African Machairodont Megantereon whitei(Broom, 1937) (Felidae, Carnivora, Mammalia) in the Lower Pleistocene Site of Venta Micena (Orce, Granada, Spain), with some Considerations on the Origin, Evolution and Dispersal of the Genus

Abstract

We have made a comparative analysis of dental morphometries of the Megantereonspecimens found in the Lower Pleistocene site at Venta Micena (Orce, Granada, Southeastern Spain) with representatives of the genus throughout the Old and New World. The methodologies used in the study include discriminant functions and principal component analysis. The results obtained point to the presence of three distinct species of this genus: M. cultridens(Cuvier), indigenous to North America from the Lower Pliocene onwards, which in the Indian subcontinent gave rise to the larger sized species M. falconeriPomel during the Upper Pliocene. M. cultridenssurvived until the Middle Pleistocene in China, and its African descendant M. whiteiBroom colonized Europe at the time of the Plio-Pleistocene boundary, reaching Dmanisi via the Near East and southern part of the Iberian Peninsula at Venta Micena via the Strait of Gibraltar.