In size they were between a modern leopard and a lion, with most about the size of a jaguar, they were medium-sized but powerful cats with a pair of prominent saber teeth. The front limbs were particularly robust compared to modern cats. Two specimens were examined by Serge Legendre and Claudia Roth for body mass. The first specimen was estimated to weigh, the second. The canine teeth of Dinofelis are longer and more flattened than those of modern cats but less than those of true saber-tooths, hence the designation of Dinofelis and nimravids as "false saber-tooth" cats. While the lower canines are robust, the cheek teeth are not nearly as robust as those of the lion and other modern big cats. Based on Dinofelis' likely preference of forest habitats, ethologistWilliam Allenet al. believes it possessed a spotted or striped coat.
Paleobiology
Their stout body may indicate a preference for dense or mixed habitats, although, like the modern jaguar, it may have ranged from forest to open country, including wetlands. Analysis of carbon isotope ratios in specimens from Swartkrans indicates that Dinofelis preferentially hunted grazing animals. The main predators of hominids in the environment at that time were most likely leopards and fellow machairodont Megantereon, whose carbon isotope ratios showed more indication of preying on hominids. Dinofelis fossils and bones have been found in South Africa near those of the baboons that it possibly had killed. Bones from several specimens of Dinofelis and baboons were found in a natural trap, where Dinofelis may have been lured to feed on trapped prey. Several sites from South Africa seem to show Dinofelis may have hunted and killed Australopithecus africanus, since the finds mingle fossilized remains of Dinofelis, hominids, and other large contemporary animals. In South Africa, Dinofelis remains have been found near Paranthropus fossil skulls, a few with precisely spaced canine holes in their crania, so it is possible Dinofelis preyed on robust hominids as well. This may been rare, however, as carbon isotope ratios contradict this. It is thought that the gradual disappearance of its forest environment may have contributed to Dinofelis extinction at the start of the ice age. There are indications of other related species.
Dinofelis aronoki: It lived in the Villafranchian and Biharian stage in Kenya and Ethiopia. Recently split from D. barlowi.
Dinofelis barlowi: It lived from the Early Pliocene to the late Pleistocene. Geographically, found in Europe, North America and Asia but mainly in Africa. It was 70 cm high and 1 m long, probably the smallest species of Dinofelis.
Dinofelis paleoonca Meade Its type locality is Meade's Quarry 11, which is in a Blancan terrestrial horizon in the Blanco Formation of Texas. It was recombined as Dinofelis palaeoonca by Kurten, Hemmer, Dalquest, Kurten and Anderson, Schultz and Werdelin and Lewis.
