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On the presence of Megantereon whitei at the South Turkwel Hominid Site, northern Kenya

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2015

Paul Palmqvist
Paul Palmqvist*
Affiliation:
Departamento de Geología y Ecología (área de Paleontología), Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Málaga. 29071 Málaga, Spain,
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Extract

Werdelin and Lewis (2000) recently described a new species of the saber-tooth genus Megantereon (Mammalia, Carnivora, Felidae) from Late Pliocene (∼3.5 Ma) deposits of the Nachukui Formation south of the Turkwel River in Turkana, northern Kenya (Ward et al., 1999). The new species, Megantereon ekidoit, is said to represent the earliest occurrence of this genus in Africa. It was described from a right mandibular ramus (KNM-St 23812) with i3–ml. As discussed below, the post-canine diastema is longer than the cheek-tooth row, since there does not appear to have been a third premolar (p3), and the coronoid process is relatively well developed, showing a hook-shaped morphology (Werdelin and Lewis, 2000: Fig. 1). The fourth premolar (p4) and the lower carnassial tooth (ml) show considerable wear.

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Journal of Paleontology , Volume 76 , Issue 5 , September 2002 , pp. 928 - 930
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Copyright © The Paleontological Society

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References

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