Open AccessA primitive Late Pliocene cheetah, and evolution of the cheetah lineage
Author(s) -
Per Christiansen,
Ji H. Mazák
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the united states of america
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.011
H-Index - 771
eISSN - 1091-6490
pISSN - 0027-8424
DOI - 10.1073/pnas.0810435106
Subject(s) - crania , lineage (genetic) , acinonyx jubatus , dentition , skull , biology , postcrania , zoology , evolutionary biology , anatomy , paleontology , taxon , genetics , gene
The cheetah lineage is a group of large, slender, and long-limbed cats with a distinctive skull and dental morphology, of which only the extant cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus ) is present today. The lineage is characterized by having abbreviated, tall, and domed crania, and a trenchant dentition with a much reduced, posteriorly placed protocone on the upper carnassial. In this article, we report on a new discovery of a Late Pliocene specimen from China with an estimated age of ≈2.2–2.5 million years, making it one of the oldest specimens known to date. A cladistic analysis confirmed that it is the most primitive cheetah known, and it shares a number of unambiguous derived cranial traits with theAcinonyx lineage, but has more primitive dentition than previously known cheetahs, demonstrating that the many unusual skull and dental characters hitherto considered characteristic of cheetahs evolved in a gradual fashion. Isolated teeth of primitive cheetahs may not be recognizable as such, but can be confused with, for instance, those of leopards or other similar-sized pantherine cats or pumas. The age and morphology of the new specimen supports an Old World origin of the cheetah lineage, not a New World one, as has been suggested. We name the new speciesAcinonyx kurteni in honor of the late Björn Kurtén.