Scientists working in the mountains of Tibet have uncovered fossils of large cats that push the limit of how early the ferocious felines first appeared on Earth. In doing so, they've potentially uncovered information concerning the modern big cats of the world.
According to the Washington Post, scientists discovered a skull of an ancient big cat similar to a snow leopard. It may indicate that big cats first came from Asia and then moved elsewhere in the world. The skull is estimated to be 4.4 million years old, which would make it older than the previous oldest remains of a big cat that were discovered in Tanzania. That fossil's age was estimated at around 3.7 million years old.
Jack Tseng of the American Museum of Natural History in New York was the leader of the study that discovered the skull. While it is similar to a snow leopard, the unnamed animal is not a direct ancestor of other big cats such as lions, tigers, and jaguars. The skull was discovered in 2010 by Tseng's wife, Juan Liu, in Tibet, but only now their research has been published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.
The skull is reportedly the size of a large grapefruit, and Tseng and his team figured out the age of the fossil by comparing it to the surrounding rocks and soil. David Polly, an independent paleontologist at Indiana University who did not partake in the study, verified that the skull is "convincingly older than the current record holder." In addition, Polly speculated that there could be even older fossils of the mountain cat hidden in the area. The team decided to name the cat Panthera blytheae, after Blythe Haaga. Haaga's parents were significant donors to Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, where Tseng worked while he went on the fateful expedition that lead to the skull's discovery.
While the animal is most likely the oldest big cat on record, it was definitely not the biggest. It is estimated based on the skull that the cat weighed around 50 pounds, the same as a modern day clouded leopard in Southeast Asia.
The new species of ancient big cat is certainly interesting, and more expeditions will be underway to uncover more information about the fossilized feline, and how it can be related to other modern day big cats.