Largest cheetah once weighed 420 pounds when remains of million-year-old ‘colossal cat’ were found – and mistaken for another beast

The world’s largest cheetah that roamed the Earth more than a million years ago weighed as much as a gorilla.

Scientists examining fossils of the robust 420-pound cat initially misidentified the remains as belonging to a prehistoric hyena.

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The researchers described their findings on acinonyx pleistocaenicus in the May 15 issue of the journal Quaternary Science Reviews.

It roamed Eurasia between about 1.3 million and 500,000 years ago – when it became extinct.

They said the enormous Middle Pleistocene cheetah of east Asia shed light on the evolution of the modern cheetah’s closest living relative, acinonyx pardinensis, in Eurasia.

“New material identified as Acinonyx pleistocaenicus represents the most recent and largest member of the species,” the researchers said.

“The fossil record of cheetahs in East Asia is remarkably sparse and predominantly fragmentary.”

DISCOVERY OF CAVES

Giant cheetah fossils – part of a lower jaw – were first discovered in 1925.

Scientists conducted further research on these fossils.

They also reported the discovery of two jaws – the lower part of the jaw and part of the mouth – that were found in a cave in Liaoning Province, China.

A partial skull found in a cave during the 1930s in China, which had previously been identified as belonging to a hyena, “is also recognized as belonging to an acinonyx,” the findings state.

“These materials offer crucial new information about the evolution of acinonyx during the Middle Pleistocene.”

They estimated the cheetah’s weight based on the length of its skull, the height of its molar tooth and the width of the bone structure that connects the skull to the spine, he explained. Living Science.

“All three (most recently found) specimens date back to around 780,000 years ago, during the Pleistocene (2.6 million to 11,700 years ago), the website added.

“They found that A. pleistocaenicus probably weighed more than 290 pounds (130 kg) and could reach 420 pounds (190 kg).”

BIG HEAD

The latter weight is equivalent to that of a robust adult female gorilla.

By comparison, modern adult African cheetahs weigh 34 to 64 kg (75 to 140 pounds), according to Smithsonian National Zoo.

A. pleistocaenicus had a broad skull, a “robust” snout, and well-developed canine teeth.

They also discovered that the enormous cheetahs shared characteristics with modern African cheetahs.

“For example, the arrangement of giant cheetahs’ teeth and the bony space behind the nose match those seen exclusively in modern cheetahs,” Live Science said.

Their extinction was likely affected by climate change that occurred during the Middle Pleistocene transition, said Qigao Jiangzuo, a paleontologist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing.

“We hope that our study can provide more information about the evolution and dispersal of the cheetah, highlighting the past success of this incredible lineage of cats in Eurasia,” Jiangzuo told the website.