Traditionally, all the
Pseudaelurus-grade species from Europe, Asia, and North America have been assigned to a single genus, even though the paraphyletic nature of the group has often been noted. Several authorities have split
Pseudaelurus into separate genera or subgenera, including
Hyperailurictis,
Styriofelis,
Miopanthera and
Schizailurus. These different groups of
Pseudaelurus-grade felids are often considered to have given rise to later felid lineages. The genus
Styriofelis was originally proposed in 1929 by Kretzoi for the species
Pseudaelurus turnaeunsis. Kretzoi also proposed the genus
Hyperailurictis for the North American species
Pseudaelurus intrepidus, and
Miopanthera for
Ps. lorteti. In 1964, Beaumont elaborated on Kretzoi's proposal and split
Pseudaelurus into three separate genera:
Pseudaelurus for the European
Ps. quadridentatus,
Schizailurus for
Ps. lorteti, and
Hyperailurictis for
Ps. intrepidus. In 1858, Joseph Leidy described the species
Felis intrepidus, from North America, and reassigned the species as
Pseudaelurus intrepidus in 1869. After that discovery, another eight species of
Pseudaelurus would be described in North America, but only five are still considered valid. In 1882, a second species from Europe was described as
Pseudaelurus turauensis, and a third species,
Pseudaelurus lorteti, in 1899. The fourth European species,
Pseudaelurus romieviensis, was described in 1934. In addition, the species
Pseudaelurus transitorius was described in 1892, but most later authors considered it a synonym of
P. turnaeunsis. In Asia, the first description of
Pseudaelurus was in 1910, when a fragmentary fossil was assigned to
Pseudaelurus chinjiensis; however, it was reassigned in 1915 to the new genus
Sivaelurus. In 1998, a second Asian species,
Pseudaelurus cuspidatus, was also described. Both of the Asian species are known only from fragmentary fossils. In 2010, a review of the Felidae as a whole suggested that
Pseudaelurus be split into three genera:
Hyperailurictis for the five North American species,
Styriofelis for two of the European species (
P. lorteti and
P. turnaunensis), and
Pseudaelurus sensu stricto for
P. quadridentatus. The status of
P. romieviensis,
P. guangheensis, and
P. cuspidatus was given as uncertain. In addition,
Miopanthera and
Schizailurus were recognized as junior synonyms of
Styriofelis. In 2012, a new species
Styriofelis vallesiensis was described based on a specimen found in Spain. However, a review of the species in 2017 concluded that it was sufficiently different from other
Styriofelis species as to require a separate genus. It was thus reassigned to the new genus
Leptofelis as
Leptofelis vallesiensis. In 2017, a review of the species
Felis pamiri, which was named based on a snout fragment from Turkey and dated to the late Miocene, concluded that
Felis pamiri and
Pseudaelurus lorteti were likely closely related to each other, and ancestral to the
Panthera lineage. Both species were reassigned to the genus
Miopanthera as
Miopanthera lorteti and
Miopanthera pamiri.
Phylogeny The following cladogram is based on Piras et al. (2013) and illustrates the three more derived lineages that evolved from "
Pseudaelurus" species. }} ==Description==