Yoshi (genus)
Yoshi is an extinct genus of machairodontine sabertooth cat in the tribe Metailurini. Its remains were first discovered in Pikermi, Greece, and were assigned by Reinhold Friedrich Hensel to Machairodus ''. In 1938, Miklós Kretzoi assigned it to a new genus, Pikermia. Subsequently, it was realised that the Greek taxon was closely related to another from China, then called Parapseudailurus minor, and both were synonymised. In 2014, a new genus, Yoshi, was erected to encompass the two, resurrecting Y. minor as a valid species. As M. parvulus was a nomen dubium, a new species, Yoshi garevskii, was designated as the type. In the intervening years, three more species have been assigned to the genus: Y. faie, Y. obscura, and Y. yongdengenesis.
In some regards, such as the shape of its skull, Yoshi was convergent with cheetahs, and it was originally suggested that it may have been more cursorial than other metailurines. However, the anatomy of its postcranial skeleton, such as the fact that its hind limbs were longer than its forelimbs, suggest that, while probably somewhat cursorial, it was not to the same extent as cheetahs. Yoshi instead had several adaptations for leaping, like many modern cats. It appears to have frequented open habitats more often than contemporary machairodonts.
Taxonomy
Early history
In 1862, Reinhold Friedrich Hensel described the species Machairodus parvulus based poorly preserved skulls from Pikermi, Greece, which he believed came from an animal the size of a lynx. In 1938, Miklós Kretzoi reassigned M. parvulus to a new genus, Pikermia, creating the new combination Pikermia parvula. In the same paper, he suggested that "Metailurus" minor, from China, could be reassigned to a genus of its own, Parapseudailurus. However, in 1951, Erich Thenius suggested that P. minor represented the same taxon as Hensel's M. parvulus, a conclusion also reached by G. D. Beaumont in 1961, who went as far as assigning a mandible from Iran to the latter. Consequently, P. minor was treated as a synonym of M. parvulus by subsequent authors. Further material from southern/southeastern Europe and Iran was assigned to M. parvulus over the years, though much of it is incomplete.Reclassification as a new genus
In 2015, Nikolai Spassov and Denis Geraads published a paper discussing the taxonomy of the aforementioned taxa. They concluded that Hensel's Machairodus parvulus was a nomen dubium, due to the generally fragmented nature of all material assigned to the species. All of the remains were assigned to a new genus, Yoshi, named after Spassov's pet cat. Two species were assigned: the type species, Y. garevskii, and Y. minor, the taxon discussed by Kretzoi. In 2022, two new species Yoshi faie and Yoshi yongdengensis were proposed based on fossils found in northeastern China. The next year, a paper discussing the predatory mammals of the Langebaanweg locality in South Africa assigned a fifth species, Y. obscura, to the genus. Y. obscura had previously been assigned to Adelphailurus, Felis, Megantereon, and Metailurus. The authors noted that the very small taxon Tchadailurus adei seemed very close to the genus Yoshi, though a synonymy was not proposed in the text.Below is a cladogram depicting the phylogenetic analysis from that paper:
Description
Yoshi was a fairly large metailurine. In the paper describing it, Y. garevskii was described as being intermediate in size between a lynx and a cheetah, though it was closer to the latter, with an estimated body mass of. The largest, Y. yongdengensis, fell within a similar size range. Though too fragmentary for precise estimates, Y. obscura is believed to have been the smallest, roughly the size of a female leopard.Skull and dentition
The skull length of the Y. garevskii type specimen, KAR-69, was in length. The skull of Y. garevskii is short, broad and high, and is morphologically quite similar to that of cheetahs, with a facial region that was similarly long and sloping. However, that of Y. minor was longer, and appears to have been less sloping. The frontal area in Y. garevskii bulged outwards, similar to cheetahs and snow leopards, while that of Y. minor was somewhat flatter. The two species' skulls also differed in that the muzzle of Y. garevskii was steeper, and the orbits were elevated on the skull. On the frontal bone, the zygomatic processes are short and rounded, like those of cheetahs. The zygomatic arches are broad and thick, though differ from modern large felids in that their bases are narrower.Yoshi