🦕 Prehistoric World Map

Yoshi fossil map

Where fossils of Yoshi have been found, shown on the Earth as it looked about 5 million years ago and on today’s map.

Dots are fossil collections recorded in the Paleobiology Database. The “then” view moves today’s fossil sites back to their positions 5 million years ago (the time slice nearest the median age of the fossils) using the Merdith et al. (2021) plate model; positions are approximate. Open on the timeline map →

GroupEarly mammals
Lived11.63–2.58 million years ago (Tortonian to Piacenzian)
PeriodsNeogene
FamilyFelidae
Named bySpassov and Geraads 2015
Fossil records18 occurrences at 7 locations (PBDB)
Found inSouth Africa, China, North Macedonia, Kenya
Rock formationsVarswater, txn:41045, Lukeino

About Yoshi

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 (under the new species M. parvulus). 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.

Text in “About” is quoted from the Wikipedia article Yoshi (genus) (revision 1352913573), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; introduction excerpted verbatim, formatting removed. Ages, family, authority and fossil records: Paleobiology Database, accessed 23 October 2026. Ages are those of the rock layers the fossils were found in. Wikidata: Q28432831.

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