New sabre-toothed cats in the Late Miocene of Toros Menalla (Chad)

The Toros Menalla Late Miocene Formation (7 Ma), Djurab desert, Chad, has yielded a large number of vertebrate remains, and among them around twenty taxa of carnivores. Recent collections allow us to describe two sabre-toothed felids assigned to the genera Lokotunjailurus and cf. Megantereon. The former does exist in the Nawata Formation, Lothagam, northern Kenya with a slightly derived species and the TM specimens are considered as belonging to a new species. The latter cannot be identified to the species level, but it could be one of the earliest specimens of Megantereon known in the world and it would reinforce the hypothesis of an Old World origin for this taxon. Both allow us to put forward some biogeographical conclusions.