rdfs:comment
| - With its large size and massive jaws and teeth, C. spelea was a formidable, "puma-like" predator, and in addition to smaller lemurids, it may have eaten some of the big, now extinct subfossil lemurs that would have been too large for C. ferox. No subfossil evidence has been found to definitively show that lemurs were its prey; this assumption is based on the diet of the smaller, extant species of fossa. Other possible prey include tenrecs, smaller euplerids, and even young Malagasy hippopotamuses. Its extinction may have changed predation dynamics on Madagascar.
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abstract
| - With its large size and massive jaws and teeth, C. spelea was a formidable, "puma-like" predator, and in addition to smaller lemurids, it may have eaten some of the big, now extinct subfossil lemurs that would have been too large for C. ferox. No subfossil evidence has been found to definitively show that lemurs were its prey; this assumption is based on the diet of the smaller, extant species of fossa. Other possible prey include tenrecs, smaller euplerids, and even young Malagasy hippopotamuses. Its extinction may have changed predation dynamics on Madagascar. The IUCN Red List currently lists C. spelea as an extinct species; why and when it went extinct remains unknown. However, local people on Madagascar often recognize two forms of fossa, a larger fosa mainty (or "black Cryptoprocta") and a smaller fosa mena (or "reddish Cryptoprocta"). There are also some anecdotal records of very large living fossas, such as a 2-m (7 ft), 30-kg (70 lb) fossa at Morondava. Goodman and colleagues suggested that further research may demonstrate that there is more than one species of fossa yet alive.
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