Lokotunjailurus

Lokotunjailurus is an extinct genus of saber-toothed cats (Machairodontinae) which existed during the late Miocene and earliest Pliocene epoch and is known from localities in northern, central, eastern and southern Africa. A big cat, it was more slender than comparable recent species and its build suggests cursoriality. It is grouped among a group of similar-looking saber-toothed cats known as the scimitar-tooths.

==History and taxonomy== The type species L. emageritus was documented by Lars Werdelin based on fossils found at the Lothagam site in Kenya. He described it as a large felid with an extremely long claw on one digit. He named the genus from the Turkana word for "cat" and the species from the word for "claw". Werdelin considered L. emageritus to be similar to Homotherium in dentition and to represent a basal member of Homotherini. More recent studies have since shed more light on its evolution, where Lokotunjailurus is shown to be sister to a lineage consisting of Amphimachairodus and its descendants, including Homotherium, and therefore no immediate relative of the latter.