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Cryptoprocta spelea
''Cryptoprocta spelea'', also known as the giant fossa,〔Alcover and McMinn, 1994, table 1〕 is an extinct species of carnivore from Madagascar in the family Eupleridae, which is most closely related to the mongooses and includes all Malagasy carnivorans. It was first described in 1902, and in 1935 was recognized as a separate species from its closest relative, the living fossa (''Cryptoprocta ferox''). ''C. spelea'' is larger than the fossa, but otherwise similar. The two have not always been accepted as distinct species. When and how the larger form went extinct is unknown; there is some anecdotal evidence, including reports of very large fossas, that there is more than one surviving species.
The species is known from subfossil bones found in a variety of caves in northern, western, southern, and central Madagascar. In some sites, it occurs with remains of ''C. ferox'', but there is no evidence that the two lived at the same time. Living species of comparably sized, related carnivores in other regions manage to coexist, suggesting that the same may have happened with both ''C. spelea'' and ''C. ferox''. ''C. spelea'' would have been able to prey on larger animals than its smaller relative could have, including the recently extinct giant lemurs.
==Taxonomy==
In 1902, Guillaume Grandidier described subfossil carnivoran remains from two caves on Madagascar as a larger "variety" of the living fossa (''Cryptoprocta ferox''), ''C. ferox'' var. ''spelea''. G. Petit, writing in 1935, considered ''spelea'' to represent a distinct species.〔Goodman et al., 2004, p. 130〕 Charles Lamberton reviewed subfossil and living ''Cryptoprocta'' in 1939 and agreed with Petit in recognizing two species,〔Goodman et al., 2004, pp. 130–131〕 naming this species from a specimen found at Ankazoabo Cave near Itampolo. The specific name ''spelea'' means "cave" and was given because of the location of its discovery.〔Goodman et al., 2003, p. 1167〕 However, Lamberton apparently had at most three skeletons of the living fossa, not nearly enough to capture the range of variation in that species, and some later authors did not separate ''C. spelea'' and ''C. ferox'' as species.〔Goodman et al., 2004, p. 131〕 Steven Goodman and colleagues, using larger samples, compiled another set of ''Cryptoprocta'' measurements that was published in a 2004 article. They found that some subfossil ''Cryptoprocta'' fell outside the range of variation of living ''C. ferox'', and identified those as representing ''C. spelea''.〔Goodman et al., 2004, p. 136〕 Grandidier had not designated a type specimen for the species, and to maintain ''C. spelea'' as the name for the larger form of the fossa, Goodman and colleagues designated a specimen to serve as the type specimen (specifically, a neotype).〔Goodman et al., 2004, pp. 136–137〕
Lamberton recognized a third species, ''Cryptoprocta antamba'', on the basis of a mandible (lower jaw) with abnormally broad spacing between the condyloid processes at the back.〔Lamberton, 1939, p. 191〕 He also referred two femora (upper leg bones) and a tibia (lower leg bone) intermediate in size between ''C. spelea'' and ''C. ferox'' to this species.〔Lamberton, 1939, p. 193〕 The specific name refers to the "antamba", an animal allegedly from southern Madagascar described by Étienne de Flacourt in 1658 as a large, rare, leopard-like carnivore that eats men and calves and lives in remote mountainous areas;〔Goodman et al., 2003, p. 1169; 2004, p. 131〕 it may have been the giant fossa.〔Turvey, 2009, p. 34〕 Goodman and colleagues could not locate Lamberton's material of ''Cryptoprocta antamba'', but suggested that it was based on an abnormal ''C. spelea''.〔Goodman et al., 2004, p. 137〕 Together, the fossa and ''C. spelea'' form the genus ''Cryptoprocta'' within the family Eupleridae, which also includes the other Malagasy carnivorans—the falanouc, the fanalokas, and the Galidiinae. DNA sequence studies suggest that the Eupleridae form a single natural (monophyletic) group and are most closely related to the mongooses of Eurasia and mainland Africa.〔Garbutt, 2007, p. 208〕
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