![]() ![]() Before this discovery, the oldest known fossils of big cats indicated that they first appeared about 3.8 million years ago in Africa. blytheae skull an incredibly valuable specimen. blytheae adapted to environmental changes millions of years ago to predict the sustainability of snow leopard populations in existence today.”Īncient cat fossils are rare, making the nearly complete P. The hope is that we can apply our knowledge of how P. “Scientists are now closer to understanding the evolutionary origin of big cats and are gathering data about their habitat. blytheae is a missing link we’ve been searching for in the timeline of big cat evolution,” said Slater. blytheae after its excavation, and helped confirm its status as a new species by conducting morphological and DNA analyses of the skull. Graham Slater, a Peter Buck post-doctoral fellow at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, examined the remains of P. 7 issue of Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. Scientists plan to build on this research by studying how big cats evolved and adapted to changes in their environment over time to help inform modern day big cat conservation efforts. It indicates that ancient big cats lived nearly 6 million years ago, 2 million years earlier than previously thought, and sheds light on their geographic origins in Asia. blytheae is the oldest big cat fossil found to date, and fills a significant gap in the fossil record. ![]() A fossil recently found in the Zanda Basin in Tibet included remains of Pantera blytheae, a new species of big cat that is most closely related to the modern day snow leopard. Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, African ArtĪfter years of sleuthing for clues about where and when pantherine felids (“big cats”) originated, a Smithsonian scientist and an international team of researchers are one step closer to understanding the evolutionary history of these species. ![]()
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