Paramachaerodus is an extinct genus of saber-tooth cat of the subfamily Machairodontinae, which was endemic to Europe and Asia during the Middle and Late Miocene from 15 to 9 Ma.[3] A 2022 phylogenetic analysis suggested that the genus may be polyphyletic.[4]
Paramacherodus is one of the earliest known true saber-toothed cats. Many fossils were discovered in Cerro de los Batallones, a Late Miocene fossil site near Madrid, Spain. One leopard-sized species is known, Paramachaerodus orientalis from the Turolian. A second species, Paramacharodus maximiliani, has been considered a synonym of Paramachaerodus orientalis by some authors,[5] but was considered a valid species in the most recent systematic revision.[1] That revision, based on an extensive morphological analysis, also determined that the species P. ogygia exhibited less derived sabertooth features than the other Paramachaerodus species and should be assigned to a separate genus, Promegantereon.[1][6]
The animals were about 58 centimetres (23 in) high at the shoulder, similar to a leopard, but with a more supple body. The shape of its limbs suggests that it may have been an agile climber, and could have hunted relatively large prey.[7]
In 1913, Guy Ellcock Pilgrim named the new genus Paramachaerodus for the species Machaerodus orientalis, Machaerodus schlosseri, and Felis ogygia; at the time, however, he failed to designate a type species. In 1915 he described more material that he assigned to Paramachaerodus cf. schlosseri (two hemimandibles, GSI-140 and GSI-141), though Matthew (1929) noted that both of those specimens did not closely resemble others in the genus. He rectified the lack of a type species in 1931 by designating Paramachaerodus orientalis the type species, now including Paramachaerodus schlosseri as a junior synonym.[1]
However, in the intervening span of time, Miklos Kretzoi had proposed another new genus, Pontosmilus, for the species P. orientalis (also the type species), P. schlosseri, P. ogygia, P. hungaricus, and the new species Pontosmilus indicus that he described based on GSI-141. He restricted Paramachaerodus to another new species, P. pilgrimi, that he described based on GSI-140. He also proposed the genus Proamphimachairodus for the species Machairodus maximiliani.[1]
With Pilgrim's clarification of Paramachaerodus in 1931, and utter rejection of both Pontosmilus and Proamphimachairodus-he included Machairodus orientalis, Felis ogygia, and Machairodus maximiliani as species of Paramachaerodus-Pontosmilus was rendered an invalid genus, for it possessed no valid type species, and both Pontosmilus and Proamphimachairodus were designated junior synonyms of Paramachaerodus.[1]