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.[3] Charles Lamberton reviewed subfossil and living Cryptoprocta in 1939 and agreed with Petit in recognizing two species,[5] 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.[6] 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.[7] Steven Goodman and colleagues, using larger samples, compiled another set of Cryptoprocta measurements that was published in a 2004 article.