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Description
Today is December 14, which is International Monkey Day. So here’s a drawing of a prehistoric monkey species.

I the early Miocene, 22 million years ago, in what is now the Lothidok Formation, west of Lake Turkana in Kenya, a Katifelis nightingalei, a small wild cat, is roaming across the woodlands in search of prey. Small mammals and birds make up much of its diet, but its presence is still deemed a threat by a troop of monkeys in an acacia tree. Known as Alophe metios, the primates are a bit larger than the cat, but just to be on the safe side they still sound an alarm call and try to escape. The large dominant male, however, sees that the Katifelis isn’t bigger than himself. He decides to take a risk and instead of running up a tree, he heads down and confronts the cat, baring his teeth and making loud calls at it. The Katifelis decides not to risk an injury from the primate, and makes a retreat. Up the tree, one of the females has disturbed a sleeping Kichechia savagei, a species of viverrid. The annoyed mammal snarls at the Alophe. While the female monkey decides to keep a distance between herself and the carnivoran’s teeth, the gutsy alpha male may want to try bolder moves with it whe it gets up the tree later. Maybe something along the lines of this ( youtu.be/Rs7u2TTPXFE&t=33).

Alophe metios is a cercopithecoid monkey, the superfamily that contains all the old world monkeys today. It is in fact the oldest known cercopithecoid monkey, and is known only from fossil remains of jaws and teeth. It is a more primitive monkey and its teeth lack molar crests, hence the genus name meaning “crestless”. Due to this difference from extant monkeys its remains were originally believed to be from a wild pig, but other dental features point towards its simian heritage. The animal was originally named “Alophia metios” in 2019, but since the genus name Alophia was preoccupied by a moth it had to be changed (what is it with prehistoric animal names getting taken by insects, eh “Syntarsus”?). Its teeth suggest Alophe may have ate mainly hard foods like nuts and seeds instead of leaves like some extant monkeys, and some think a shift in diet towards leaves is what drove the evolution of the teeth of later Cercopithecidae monkeys. Since it is quite an obscure animal, few reconstructions of Alophe exist (if at all) for me to use as reference, but since it is quite fragmentary anyway I based this reconstruction on extant langur, vervet and colobus monkeys.

Katifelis was a genus of small felids (or cats for those of you who don’t speak Latin) described in 2018, with only one known species. It is known from a fragment of the lower jaw which suggests it was smaller than the extant caracal, a cat that grows just over a meter long. The name Katifelis means “intermediate cat” because it was more primitive than the genus Felis, but more advanced than Pseudaelurus, so it is intermediate between the two genera. Being a cat, it was quite certainly a predator. From its small size it likely hunted small mammals and birds, but since caracals can even bring down impala and mountain reedbuck as prey it seems reasonable to think Katifelis may possibly pose a threat to Alophe, especially the young ones.

Kichechia is a genus of small aeluroid carnivoran mammal with multiple species. The genus was first described in 1965, but K. savagei was more recently named in 2018 (in the same paper as Katifelis). This species is known only from fossilised jaw remains (damn is there anything other than jaws to prove mammals lived at Lothidok?). A few specimens once assigned to another species in the genus, K. zamanae, were also reassigned to K. savagei. The genus Kichechia is one of the most common small carnivorans from Miocene Africa, and while researching it I found that some sources said Kichechia was a Herpestid (mongoose) while others said it was a viverrid (that family that includes civets and genets). This paper , which described K. savagei, states that this species is a member of Paradoxurinae, which includes the palm civets. It also suggests the possibility that the genus Kichechia is polyphyletic, with species that should not be grouped together. Perhaps some assigned species were mongooses and others were civets? I don’t know, classification can be a dick and this genus may need some serious reassessment and could already be a wastebasket taxon. Mammal version of Megalosaurus, anyone? Well I decided to draw this species as a viverrid, with colours and appearance mainly based on palm civets.

Also, first Alophe, Katifelis and Kichechia on DA (the other Alophe are all someone’s OC).

Description
Today is December 14, which is International Monkey Day. So here’s a drawing of a prehistoric monkey species.

I the early Miocene, 22 million years ago, in what is now the Lothidok Formation, west of Lake Turkana in Kenya, a Katifelis nightingalei, a small wild cat, is roaming across the woodlands in search of prey. Small mammals and birds make up much of its diet, but its presence is still deemed a threat by a troop of monkeys in an acacia tree. Known as Alophe metios, the primates are a bit larger than the cat, but just to be on the safe side they still sound an alarm call and try to escape. The large dominant male, however, sees that the Katifelis isn’t bigger than himself. He decides to take a risk and instead of running up a tree, he heads down and confronts the cat, baring his teeth and making loud calls at it. The Katifelis decides not to risk an injury from the primate, and makes a retreat. Up the tree, one of the females has disturbed a sleeping Kichechia savagei, a species of viverrid. The annoyed mammal snarls at the Alophe. While the female monkey decides to keep a distance between herself and the carnivoran’s teeth, the gutsy alpha male may want to try bolder moves with it whe it gets up the tree later. Maybe something along the lines of this ( youtu.be/Rs7u2TTPXFE&t=33).

Alophe metios is a cercopithecoid monkey, the superfamily that contains all the old world monkeys today. It is in fact the oldest known cercopithecoid monkey, and is known only from fossil remains of jaws and teeth. It is a more primitive monkey and its teeth lack molar crests, hence the genus name meaning “crestless”. Due to this difference from extant monkeys its remains were originally believed to be from a wild pig, but other dental features point towards its simian heritage. The animal was originally named “Alophia metios” in 2019, but since the genus name Alophia was preoccupied by a moth it had to be changed (what is it with prehistoric animal names getting taken by insects, eh “Syntarsus”?). Its teeth suggest Alophe may have ate mainly hard foods like nuts and seeds instead of leaves like some extant monkeys, and some think a shift in diet towards leaves is what drove the evolution of the teeth of later Cercopithecidae monkeys. Since it is quite an obscure animal, few reconstructions of Alophe exist (if at all) for me to use as reference, but since it is quite fragmentary anyway I based this reconstruction on extant langur, vervet and colobus monkeys.

Katifelis was a genus of small felids (or cats for those of you who don’t speak Latin) described in 2018, with only one known species. It is known from a fragment of the lower jaw which suggests it was smaller than the extant caracal, a cat that grows just over a meter long. The name Katifelis means “intermediate cat” because it was more primitive than the genus Felis, but more advanced than Pseudaelurus, so it is intermediate between the two genera. Being a cat, it was quite certainly a predator. From its small size it likely hunted small mammals and birds, but since caracals can even bring down impala and mountain reedbuck as prey it seems reasonable to think Katifelis may possibly pose a threat to Alophe, especially the young ones.

Kichechia is a genus of small aeluroid carnivoran mammal with multiple species. The genus was first described in 1965, but K. savagei was more recently named in 2018 (in the same paper as Katifelis). This species is known only from fossilised jaw remains (damn is there anything other than jaws to prove mammals lived at Lothidok?). A few specimens once assigned to another species in the genus, K. zamanae, were also reassigned to K. savagei. The genus Kichechia is one of the most common small carnivorans from Miocene Africa, and while researching it I found that some sources said Kichechia was a Herpestid (mongoose) while others said it was a viverrid (that family that includes civets and genets). This paper , which described K. savagei, states that this species is a member of Paradoxurinae, which includes the palm civets. It also suggests the possibility that the genus Kichechia is polyphyletic, with species that should not be grouped together. Perhaps some assigned species were mongooses and others were civets? I don’t know, classification can be a dick and this genus may need some serious reassessment and could already be a wastebasket taxon. Mammal version of Megalosaurus, anyone? Well I decided to draw this species as a viverrid, with colours and appearance mainly based on palm civets.

Also, first Alophe, Katifelis and Kichechia on DA (the other Alophe are all someone’s OC).