Panthera blytheae
- Alt Name:
- Location:
- Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Specimen ID:
- IVPP V18788.1
- Additional Media:
- -
This is a stl rendering of the holotype of Panthera blytheae, currently the oldest known big cat (pantherine felid). The specimen was discovered in 2010 in the remote Himalayan foothills in western Tibet, in Mio-Pliocene rocks. Data were acquired using CT scanning. The specimen is dorsoventrally crushed during fossilization, so the description of the cranial anatomy was assisted by virtual reconstruction of the damaged bones using CT images.
Related Publication
- Title:
- Himalayan fossils of the oldest known pantherine establish ancient origin of big cats
- Year:
- 2014
- Authors:
- Tseng, Z. J., Wang, X., Slater, G. J., Takeuchi, G. T., Li, Q., Liu, J., Xie, G.
- Journal:
- Proceedings of the Royal Society B 281: 20132686, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2013.2686
Pantherine felids (‘big cats’) include the largest living cats, apex predators in their respective ecosystems. They are also the earliest diverging living cat lineage, and thus are important for understanding the evolution of all subsequent felid groups. Although the oldest pantherine fossils occur in Africa, molecular phylogenies point to Asia as their region of origin. This paradox cannot be reconciled using current knowledge, mainly because early big cat fossils are exceedingly rare and fragmentary. Here, we report the discovery of a fossil pantherine from the Tibetan Himalaya, with an age of Late Miocene–Early Pliocene, replacing African records as the oldest pantherine. A ‘total evidence’ phylogenetic analysis of pantherines indicates that the new cat is closely related to the snow leopard and exhibits intermediate characteristics on the evolutionary line to the largest cats. Historical biogeographic models provide robust support for the Asian origin of pantherines. The combined analyses indicate that 75% of the divergence events in the pantherine lineage extended back to the Miocene, up to 7 Myr earlier than previously estimated. The deeper evolutionary origin of big cats revealed by the new fossils and analyses indicate a close association between Tibetan Plateau uplift and diversification of the earliest living cats.