Himalayan big cat fossil is oldest ever found

Researchers working in the Himalayan Mountains have unearthed a treasure trove of fossils, including what is now the oldest 'big cat' fossil ever found.

All cats — big and small — have been traced back by genetics to a common ancestor that lived in Asia, up to 7 million years ago. However, so far, the oldest fossil evidence for the 'big cat' part of the feline family tree has been found in eastern Africa, dating back to about 3.8 million years ago. So, there has been a large gap to fill.

While working on the Tibetan Plateau, high in the Himalayas, a team led by Jack Tseng, a paleontologist with the American Museum of Natural History in New York, discovered a deposit of fossils that held the remains several types of animals, including those of a three-toed horse and a wooly rhinoceros. One of the fossils in particular — the skull of a cat, roughly twice as big as the skull of your average domestic cat — turned out to be fairly significant. This fossil, of a previously-unknown species now called Panthera blytheae, is older than any other big cat fossil ever found, dated to at least 4 million years and possibly up to around 6 million years old.

Although the skull fossil wasn't complete, the researchers put together this 3D digital reconstruction:

[ More Geekquinox: Beautiful time-lapse video captures Aurora Borealis over the Rocky Mountains ]

Tseng and his team figure that the cat likely looked very similar to a modern clouded leopard, which is currently found in the foothills of the Himalayas, and is considered a vulnerable species due to habitat loss and being hunted for their skin, teeth and claws.

Their research paper on this new fossil, titled 'Himalayan fossils of the oldest known pantherine establish ancient origin of big cats', was published today in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

(Photo courtesy: Wikimedia Commons)

Geek out with the latest in science and weather.
Follow @ygeekquinox on Twitter!