This mammal lived during the Uintan stage of the Middle Eocene Epoch around 46.2 to 39.7 million years ago.

Diegoaelurus vanvalkenburghae was named after Dr. Blaire Van Valkenburgh in honor of her research on carnivorous mammals and saber-toothed predator paleoecology.

[1] According to a paper on the creature, ''The present study highlights how poorly documented the machaeroidine fossil record remains''.

[1] Its discovery has made paleontologists question whether this group's extinction was caused due to the large faunal turnover at the end of the Eocene.

[8] It seems once the Oxyaenids went extinct their ecological nice was filled in by the Nimravids, a family of saber-toothed mammals that belonged to the group Feliformia.