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Some 20,000 years ago in a cave in a cliff paries in the Grand Canyon , two American Acinonyx jubatus battled tooth against hook . The superior is lost to history , but one of the big cats , a juvenile that was bitten through the spine , in all likelihood died where it fell on the cave floor , leaving behind bones and second of mummified tissue .
Now , the remains of this unfortunate felid , along with fossils from two other Grand Canyon caves , have revealed that the extinct American cheetah ( Miracinonyx trumani ) may not have been swift flatland sprinters like Africa ’s moderncheetahs(Acinonyx jubatus ) . alternatively , these cat may have been more like today ’s snowleopards(Panthera uncia ) , prowling cliff sides and bumpy regions and eating mostly mountain goats and bighorn sheep .
An American cheetah (Miracinonyx trumani) and her cubs crouch over the remains a Harrington’s mountain goat (Oreamnos harringtoni) inside a cave in the Grand Canyon, while a Shasta ground sloth (Nothrotheriops shastensis) lumbers past and a California condor (Gymnogyps californianus) soars in the distance. Inside the cave, two Stock’s vampire bats (Desmodus stocki) hang from the ceiling, and a woodrat (Neotoma) hides by the wall on the right. Ovoid structures on the cave floor are droppings left by ground sloths, based on finds in locations such as Rampart Cave.
Scientists found the fossils ten ago and they key out the bones at the time as belong to to mountain lions ( Puma concolor ) . But recent re - depth psychology of the ivory expose that they instead belong to the American chetah , which is known from other fossil web site . American cheetahs were closely connect to mountain lions , but had the short hooter and slim proportions of today ’s African cheetahs .
Cliffside kitties
The American chetah has been extinct for about 10,000 years . Before the end of the lastIce Age , it dwell across North America — its bone have been found from West Virginia to Arizona , and as far N as Wyoming . The speed of this nonextant cat is thought to excuse why forward-looking pronghorn antelopes ( Antilocapra americana ) can run at 60 mph ( 96.5 km / h ) . None of the pronghorn ’s living predators sprint that fast , but the American cheetah probably could .
But the new research suggests that American cheetahs did n’t primarily hunt prongbuck — or at least , not alone . While some cheetah fogey have been found in open - mountain range valleys where ancient Antilocapra americana roamed , many other such fossils were discovered in rough , exorbitant spot , where caves provided snug lair , say John - Paul Hodnett , a paleontologist at the Maryland - National Capital Parks and Planning Commission and lead author of the study that review the Grand Canyon specimens .
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Hodnett first encountered the fossils nearly 20 years ago , as an undergraduate bookman at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff , he told Live Science . A alumnus student that Hodnett forge with at the time was identifying fossils from Rampart Cave , a lowly , low sleeping room in the western Grand Canyon that was carpeted with fogy ivory and layers of fossilized giantslothpoop .
Among the catalog fossils were some that had been label as belong to mountain lions . But Hodnett , who had been studying American cheetah fossils from southerly Arizona , recognize that the bones were actually those of a cheetah . Hodnett ’s adviser arranged entree to a fistful of additional " mountain lion " bones from two other Grand Canyon caves : Next Door Cave in the key Grand Canyon and Stanton ’s Cave in the easterly Grand Canyon . Those bones also turn out to belong to American cheetah and not mountain Lion , Hodnett found . There are sure features in the bones , like the shape of an ankle social structure , that can pick out cheetahs from mountain lions , and some of their bones are different sizes , Hodnett said .
A prehistoric cat fight
engaged with other enquiry and projection , Hodnett put this discovery aside for years without publishing what he ’d learned . But in 2019 , he and his colleagues were working on an inventory of the eff fossil phonograph recording in Grand Canyon National Park , which spur him to pull out and update his American cheetah inquiry .
The bone from Next Door Cave was a heel ivory , while Stanton ’s Cave held a portion of a paw with an intact claw cocktail dress . The most intriguing discovery came from Rampart Cave and represent two American cheetah individuals . One was a subadult — the feline equivalent weight of a teenager — while the other was a kitten about six month of age , Hodnett said . The untried adult had been attacked , with puncture wounds on the skull and spine that were about the size of an adult American cheetah ’s teeth . These wounding were in all likelihood fateful .
" You see a very penetrative puncture in the spine and that would have been debilitating mightily off the bat , " Hodnett said . " It does not look healed at all . "
It ’s unclear if the two young CAT in the cave were touch on , but some semi - mummified soft tissue paper still clingstone to the bones , so researchers might be able to recover and analyze enough DNA to find that out , Hodnett said . The wounds could be the outcome of a territorial battle , he add up . Or perhaps a manly cheetah was attempt to drink down another ’s immature , a conduct realise today inAfrican lions .
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Whatever the case , the find reveal that American cheetahs hunted beyond the grassland . Cheetah fogey base in caves are often associated with the bones of bighorn sheep and an out herbivore do it as Harrington ’s mountain butt ( Oreamnos harringtoni ) . This suggests that these drop-off - indweller may have been prime American cheetah prey .
" This discovery , or reidentification , of these classically - call up ' mountain lion ' fossil gives us the mind that this picky out cat , Miracinonyx , may have been a small bit more diverse in terms of its preferred bionomics , " Hodnett aver .
The findings were publish in the May number of theNew Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin .
Originally bring out on Live Science .
