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Fortunictis is a fossil genus of Metailurini machairodontine (saber-toothed) felid containing only one species, Fortunictis acerensis. Both the genus and species were described by paleontologist Joan Pons-Moyà in 1987 based on material from Casa del Acero in Spain, which is dated back to the Upper Miocene (approximately 8.7 to 5.332 million years ago).
The generic name Fortunictis is a combination of fortuna and ictis meaning "wild cat". The specific epithet acerensis meaning "from Casa del Acera", the type locality.
Further material assigned to Fortunictis was discovered at Venta del Moro in 2004.
A later study further noted that F. acerensis was a highly derived metailurin with a relatively slender mandible. It further described the upper canine teeth as more flattened, the upper and lower third premolars as very elongated, and both the third and fourth premolars as well as the first molar all narrower than the related Metailurus major.
A 2014 study of the species Yoshi minor and Yoshi garevskii describe the measurements of multiple metailurine teeth, including Fortunictis. The length of the canines of Fortunictis were described as being >52 mm long, and a mesiodistal diameter of 17.9 mm. Which was noted to be much larger than the canines of Yoshi garevskii and comparable to those of Metailurus major and Stenailurus.
In a 2018 description of the small machairodont species Tchadailurus, it is mentioned that Fortunictis is far larger, (50%) than the holotype specimen of Tchadailurus, TM 112-00-99.
A cladogram of the Metailurini from a 2018 phylogenetic analysis:
Description
Pons-Moyà described the species' diagnostic characteristics as: curved, highly laterally compressed upper canine teeth; elongated crown and no mesial cusp on the third premolar; high, transversely compressed cusps on the fourth premolar and lower; and a highly compressed first molar with a long talonid with a hypoconid cusp, but lacking the metaconid cusp.
Classification
Fortunictis was assigned to the tribe Metailurini in the subfamily Machairodontinae in its original description.
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