In 1882, a species of
Pseudaelurus from Europe was described as
Pseudaelurus turnauensis. Another species,
Pseudaelurus lorteti, was described in 1899. The species
Pseudaelurus transitorius was described in 1892, but most authors considered it a synonym of
P. turnauensis. In 1929, Kretzoi proposed the genus
Styriofelis for
P. turnauensis, but this proposal was largely ignored. Kretzoi also proposed the genus
Miopanthera for
P. lorteti, but Beaumont, during his proposal of splitting
Pseudaelurus, ignored Kretzoi and placed the two species in his own genus
Schizailurus. Subsequently,
Schizailurus has been considered a junior synonym of both
Styriofelis and
Miopanthera. In 2010, a review of the family Felidae suggested that
Pseudaelurus be split into three separate genera, including
Styriofelis for
P. turnauensis and
P. lorteti. The status of
Pseudaelurus romieviensis, the fourth European species, was left uncertain due to the fragmentary state of the specimens assigned to it. In 2012, a new species of
Pseudaelurus-grade felid found in Spain was described as
Styriofelis vallesiensis. In 2017, however, a review of the species concluded that it was sufficiently different as to require a separate genus, and was reassigned to the new genus
Leptofelis as
Leptofelis vallesiensis. Also in 2017, a review of the species
Felis pamiri concluded that
F. pamiri and
S. lorteti were closely related, and were also distinct enough to both be reassigned to the genus
Miopanthera. Fossil discoveries of
Styriofelis turnauensis from the late Middle Miocene site of Abocador de Can Mata in Spain have expanded the known geographic range of the species within the Iberian Peninsula, distinguishing it from closely related species such as
S. lorteti and
S. vallesiensis based on dental morphology (Robles et al., 2013). ==References==