Dinofelis is a prehistoric cat featured by Impossible Pictures, and it was one of the earlier, now-extinct cats with saber teeth. It lived during the Pliocene epoch.
FactsEditDinofelis was a medium-sized, but powerful, cat that possessed short, but prominent saber teeth. They were more short, broad and flat than the sabres of the much bigger and better known Smilodon, and less prone to breaking. As a consequence, Dinofelis was a solitary hunter, often running down its prey in a manner similar to modern pantherine cats (such as tigers and leopards) before delivering the killing blow.
Regardless, Dinofelis wasn't a relative of the modern cats or Smilodon, but belonged to a completely different branch of the feline family. It lived in forests and open woodlands. It was a lone hunter, and would stalk its prey carefully before pouncing and swiftly killing it with its sharp claws. The front limbs of Dinofelis were particularly strong and muscular, allowing it to deliver debilitating strikes with its claws, and also to pin struggling prey to the ground. Its short sabre-teeth could have been used to help deliver fatal wounds, especially to the neck region. The favorite prey of Dinofelis were large mammals, such as antelope, pigs, horses, baboons and Australopithecus aferensis. It was not a fast runner, so would spend most of its time stalking its victims before making a sudden leap.
In Walking with... seriesEditNext of Kin), where it stalks and kills one Australopithecus. It later returns to menace the same group, but they assemble and collaboratively chase it away by throwing stones.
Dinofelis appears briefly in Walking with Cavemen, being stated as one of the species that will go extinct along with Paranthropus boisei, although WWC reuses clips form Walking with Beasts, and makes no new animations.
- Some Of it's Growls Were Reused Growls As The Allosaurus From The Ballad Of Big Al.
- Dinofelis is no longer believed to have hunted hominids (at least not much), but the contemporaneous Megantereon is.
Appearances in Other MediaEdit
Monsters we MetEdit
Stock footage of Dinofelis' appearance in WWB was reused in Monsters we Met.