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World's oldest big cat is unearthed - six million years after it roamed the Himalayas | Mail Online
The world's oldest big cat has been unearthed in Tibet.
Its skull was discovered in the Himalayas and could date back almost six million years.
The new creature, named Panthera blytheae, is a relative of the elusive snow leopard and sheds new light on the evolution of lions, jaguars and tigers, U.S. scientists said.
Using magnetostratigraphy - the technique of dating fossils based on the distinctive patterns of reversals in the Earth's magnetic field that are recorded in layers of rock - the skull is estimated to be 4.1 to 5.95 million years old.
It points to central Asia as the place of origin for big cats and the Tibetan plateau as a critical region for understanding their diversification.
Dr Jack Tseng, of the American Museum of Natural History in New York, said: 'This find suggests big cats have a deeper evolutionary origin than previously suspected.'
DNA evidence suggests big cats - known collectively as Pantherinae, which include lions, jaguars, tigers, leopards, snow leopards and clouded leopards - diverged from their nearest evolutionary cousins Felinae, typified by cougars, lynxes and domestic cats about 6.37 million years ago.
However, the oldest fossils of big cats, which were found in the 1970s, are tooth fragments uncovered at in Tanzania alongside early humans and are 3.6 million years old.
The latest species described in Proceedings of the Royal Society B challenges previous suppositions about the evolution of big cats and helps place them in geographical context.
Using magnetostratigraphy - dating fossils based on the distinctive patterns of reversals in the Earth's magnetic field which are recorded in layers of rock - the skull is estimated to be 4.1 to 5.95 million years old
The discovery was made in a region that includes the majority of current big cat habitats and suggests the group evolved in central Asia and spread outwards.
THE ORIGIN OF BIG CATS
The skull was discovered in the Himalayas and could date back almost six million years
The new creature, named Panthera blytheae, is a relative of the elusive snow leopard and sheds new light on the evolution of lions, jaguars and tigers.
It points to central Asia as the place of origin for big cats some six million years ago and the Tibetan plateau as a critical region for understanding their diversification
Dr Jack Tseng, of the American Museum of Natural History in New York, said: 'This find suggests big cats have a deeper evolutionary origin than previously suspected.'
Recent estimates have suggested that lions, tigers, jaguars, leopards and snow leopards did not split from clouded leopards until 3.72 million years ago, which the find also disproves.
Dr Tseng, his wife Dr Juan Liu of Alberta University in Canada and Dr Gary Takeuchi, of the Natural History Museum, discovered the skull in 2010 while scouting in the remote border region between Pakistan and China - an area that takes a bumpy seven-day car ride to reach from Beijing.
Dr Liu found over one hundred antelope limbs and jaws likely deposited by a river and below these was the crushed, but largely complete, remains of the skull.
Dr Tseng, a student at Southern California University when he led the expedition, said: 'It was just lodged in the middle of all that mess.'
The new creature, named Panthera blytheae is a relative of the snow leopard (pictured) and throws new light on the evolution of lions, jaguars and tigers
For the past three years the researchers have used both anatomical and DNA data to confirm the skull does represent a new species. They plan to return to the site next summer to search for more specimens.
Professor Xiaoming Wang, curator of vertebrate palaeontology at the Natural History Museum, said: 'We are in the business of discovery. We go out into the world in search of new fossils to illuminate the past.'
The cat has taken its name from Blythe; the snow-leopard-loving daughter of Paul and Heather Haaga who are avid supporters of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.
Read more: World's oldest big cat is unearthed - six million years after it roamed the Himalayas | Mail Online
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
The world's oldest big cat has been unearthed in Tibet.
Its skull was discovered in the Himalayas and could date back almost six million years.
The new creature, named Panthera blytheae, is a relative of the elusive snow leopard and sheds new light on the evolution of lions, jaguars and tigers, U.S. scientists said.
Using magnetostratigraphy - the technique of dating fossils based on the distinctive patterns of reversals in the Earth's magnetic field that are recorded in layers of rock - the skull is estimated to be 4.1 to 5.95 million years old.
It points to central Asia as the place of origin for big cats and the Tibetan plateau as a critical region for understanding their diversification.
Dr Jack Tseng, of the American Museum of Natural History in New York, said: 'This find suggests big cats have a deeper evolutionary origin than previously suspected.'
DNA evidence suggests big cats - known collectively as Pantherinae, which include lions, jaguars, tigers, leopards, snow leopards and clouded leopards - diverged from their nearest evolutionary cousins Felinae, typified by cougars, lynxes and domestic cats about 6.37 million years ago.
However, the oldest fossils of big cats, which were found in the 1970s, are tooth fragments uncovered at in Tanzania alongside early humans and are 3.6 million years old.
The latest species described in Proceedings of the Royal Society B challenges previous suppositions about the evolution of big cats and helps place them in geographical context.
Using magnetostratigraphy - dating fossils based on the distinctive patterns of reversals in the Earth's magnetic field which are recorded in layers of rock - the skull is estimated to be 4.1 to 5.95 million years old
The discovery was made in a region that includes the majority of current big cat habitats and suggests the group evolved in central Asia and spread outwards.
THE ORIGIN OF BIG CATS
The skull was discovered in the Himalayas and could date back almost six million years
The new creature, named Panthera blytheae, is a relative of the elusive snow leopard and sheds new light on the evolution of lions, jaguars and tigers.
It points to central Asia as the place of origin for big cats some six million years ago and the Tibetan plateau as a critical region for understanding their diversification
Dr Jack Tseng, of the American Museum of Natural History in New York, said: 'This find suggests big cats have a deeper evolutionary origin than previously suspected.'
Recent estimates have suggested that lions, tigers, jaguars, leopards and snow leopards did not split from clouded leopards until 3.72 million years ago, which the find also disproves.
Dr Tseng, his wife Dr Juan Liu of Alberta University in Canada and Dr Gary Takeuchi, of the Natural History Museum, discovered the skull in 2010 while scouting in the remote border region between Pakistan and China - an area that takes a bumpy seven-day car ride to reach from Beijing.
Dr Liu found over one hundred antelope limbs and jaws likely deposited by a river and below these was the crushed, but largely complete, remains of the skull.
Dr Tseng, a student at Southern California University when he led the expedition, said: 'It was just lodged in the middle of all that mess.'
The new creature, named Panthera blytheae is a relative of the snow leopard (pictured) and throws new light on the evolution of lions, jaguars and tigers
For the past three years the researchers have used both anatomical and DNA data to confirm the skull does represent a new species. They plan to return to the site next summer to search for more specimens.
Professor Xiaoming Wang, curator of vertebrate palaeontology at the Natural History Museum, said: 'We are in the business of discovery. We go out into the world in search of new fossils to illuminate the past.'
The cat has taken its name from Blythe; the snow-leopard-loving daughter of Paul and Heather Haaga who are avid supporters of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.
Read more: World's oldest big cat is unearthed - six million years after it roamed the Himalayas | Mail Online
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
