Megantereon adroveri from the Early Pleistocene of Taurida Cave, Crimea, and the European Lineage of Dirk-toothed Cats

Recent field surveys performed in the newly-discovered Taurida Cave (Crimea, Russia, Late Villafranchian, 1.8–1.5 Ma) enabled us to unearth dentognathic remains of the dirk-toothed cat Megantereon. Here we describe in detail the recovered remains further comparing it anatomically and biometrically with coeval Eurasian and African sites. The performed analysis suggests the inclusion of the Taurida remains in the hypodigm of the Villafranchain...