The giant cheetah has fewer secrets. It is one of the most ferocious predators that existed in nature about one and a half million years ago, in the Pleistocene
The giant cheetah has fewer secrets. It is one of the most ferocious predators that existed in nature about one and a half million years ago, in the Pleistocene.
To study the remains, found on the slopes of Monte Argentari, was a team of scientists coordinated by Raffaele Sardella and Dawid Adam Iurino of the Department of Earth Sciences of the La Sapienza University of Rome with the University of Perugia and in collaboration with the 'ESRF of Grenoble and the University of Verona.
According to the researchers, this beautiful creature was less agile than the cheetah but as powerful as a panther and as heavy as a lion. These features emerged by examining the fossil remains of the skull through the particle accelerator of the European synchrotron radiation facility (ESFR) in Grenoble.
The fragment, found in the first half of the 900th century on the slopes of the Argentario, was hidden in one rock and for decades it had been a real headache for scholars, until it was classified as a leopard in the mid-50s and later as a Eurasian Pleistocene jaguar about 10 years ago. But it was only when the fossil became available for scientific study that its true nature was identified.
The skull, it is now certain, is that ofAcinonyx pardinensis, better known as the giant cheetah, the ancestor of the present feline.
The international research team scanned the find in synchrotron light, the electromagnetic radiation generated by the circular accelerator of the European synchrotron radiation facility (ESRF) in Grenoble (France), at a speed close to that of light. In this way, it was possible to “enter” the fossil and create an extremely detailed 3D model.
Lo study allowed to discover the characteristics of this splendid prehistoric animal: the teeth and part of the muzzle are similar to those of the current cheetahs but other features of the skull bring the animal closer to the current panthers. A mix of characters that will help rewrite the evolution of cheetahs.
“Analyzing a fragment dated about 1,5 million years with one of the most futuristic instruments available among the most important research centers has allowed us to take advantage of top-level performance without compromising the conservation of the find; something that could have happened instead with a complex restoration work ”explains Raffaele Sardella.
The study was published in Scientific Reports.
READ also:
- The wonderful snow leopard is about to go extinct
- Tigers and lions: the ancestor of the big cats discovered in Tibet
Francesca Mancuso
