Xenosmilus

Xenosmilus

Xenosmilus (from Greek, ξένος, xenos, "strange" + σμίλη, smilē, "chisel" ) is a genus of extinct Machairodontinae, or saber-toothed cat. Two fairly intact specimens were found by amateur fossil hunters, in 1983 (1981 by some sources) in the Haile limestone mines in Alachua County, Florida. In 1994 the fossils were examined, and it was decided that the cats were of an entirely new genus, which has been placed under the tribe Machairodontini. They lived about 1 million years ago, but as there are only two specimens of the same age, when they appeared and when they became extinct is unclear. Currently, there is only one species known, X. hodsonae.

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