What do we really know about the first of the big cats? Big cats or cats in general are solitary animals, so finding any fossils, let alone a well preserved fossil is like finding a needle in a hay stack. I believe that it is important for us to take a look back in time so we can try and see what pressures the ancient big cats faced, to prevent making some of the same mistakes that caused the extinction of many of the ancient big cats. Today many of the big cats of Central Asia, South America, and Africa are facing extinction due to humans impeding onto their territory and destroying the necessary habitat for them to survive.
The history of the cat family Felidae has its origins that can be traced back to the late Eocene Epoch about thirty-seven millions years ago. The cats began to evolve long before most of the other mammals were even recognizable as species. Big cats belong to two main subfamilies Pantherinae and Felinae. The Felinae’s are among some of the younger of the big cat groups appearing in Eurasia about ten million years ago. The slightly smaller big cats of the Felinae include cougars, cheetahs, lynxes, and ocelots. The Pantherinae which first appeared in Central Asia around sixteen millions years ago are among the oldest and largest of the big cats which include tigers, lions, jaguars, and leopards. (Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.)
On August 7, 2010, paleobiologist Jack Tseng and colleagues were exploring on the Tibetan Plateau when they came across what is perhaps the most significant finds to date, part of the skull of a large cat sticking up out of the dirt. As the scientist began to dig they quickly realized they were digging in a bone bed when they began to find well preserved pieces of fox, pica, and...
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Works Cited
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"Himalayan Fossil of the oldest known pantherine establish anceint orgin of big cats." 7 Jan 2014. Poceedings of The Royal Society of Biological Sciences. web. 17 Feb 2014.
Holland, Jennifer S. "Fossil Find Vlears Up Big Cat Origins." 12 Nov 2013. National Geogrphic. web. 10 Feb 2014.
Mestel, R. "What Is a Sabertooth?" 1993. Unversity of California Museum of Paleontology. web. 1 Mar 2014. .
Rincon, Ascanio, Francisco Prevosit and Gilberto Parra. "New saber-toothed cat records (Felidae: Machairodontinae) for the Pleistocene of Venezuela, and the Great American Biotic Interchange. ." n.d. Academic Search Complete. web. 13 feb 2014.
3 Apr. 2014. The 'Standard' of the 'Standard'. http://eol.org/pages/323582/details>. Evans, Arthur V., Rosser W. Garrison, Neil Schlager, and Michael Hutchins. Grzimeks' Animal Life Encyclopedia.
1) Carroll, R. L. 1988. Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution. W. H. Freeman and Company, New York.
Lerner, E. and Lerner, B., 2008. Giraffes and okapi. The Gale Encyclopedia of Science 4
The feline was the most important animal given divine honors because it was admired for its energy or power, strength and agility (Ions, 103). Egyptians first domesticated cats around 2000 BCE in Egypt. This was essentially because of their instincts to catch and kill rats and other rodents (Michelle). Eventually these domesticated house pets surpassed other animals of its time and elevated its status to a worshipped deity. Goddesses that are often depicted with a lion or cat embodiment are; Mafdet, Bastet, Sakhemet, Tefnut (Pinch, 134). Egyptian gods depicted with a lion or cat embodiment are Atum-Ra and Bes. All w ere associated with the sun-god Ra, sometimes being identified as “The Eye of Ra”. Ra was viewed as one of the most important gods because the sun controls farming and crops (Pinch, 129). Egyptians considered cats as royalty and treated them as such through laws that protected them from any harm. Therefore, if any human ...
Three incomplete skulls of Homo sapiens were discovered in 1997. Bruce Bower’s article “African Legacy: Fossils plug gap in human origins” discusses the fossils. These findings are important because according to the discoverers, they are the oldest known fossils of modern people. The skulls were found in Herto, Ethiopian located in eastern Africa. The fossils are dated between 154,000 and 160,000 years ago.i[1] The fossils were dated radioisotopically.ii[2] Since the fossils are the oldest known fossils of modern people, it is probable that these hominids represent the immediate ancestors of humans that are anatomically modern. Tim D. White’s (et al) article “Pleistocene Homo sapiens from Middle Awash, Ethiopia” describes the discovery of the Herto fossils and the research of the artifacts in great detail.
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In 2000, Dr. Philip D. Gingerich, a paleontologist from the University of Michigan, and his associates discovered two primitive whale fossils in the Balochistan Province of Pakistan. By dating the limestone located in the Habib Rahi Formation of the Balochistan Province, Gingerich estimated these fossils to be about 47 million years old. According to author David Braun of National Geographic News, “The researchers have classified one, Rodhocetus balochistanensis, as a new species of an existing genus, and the other, Artiocetus clavis, as a new species and new genus” (Braun, 5). The discovery of these two fossils suggests that the closest living relative of these primitive whales could possibly be the modern day hippopotamus. This suggested relationship is based on similarities in the bone structure between the two animals.
Therefore, it’s difficult to start a conversation between geologists, archaeologists and historians. It’s vital to narrow the research prospects in these fields but also I think there needs to be more scientific discourse between different fields that affect each other in one way or another. The human historical paradigm is grounded in the research of archaeology. However, Hancock debates that the field of geology has more to teach humans about our history than we think. He debates that around 15,000 to 8,000 BC, during the last ice age, an unprecedented world-wide cataclysm was overlooked that led to the extinction of countless species, including the megafauna (Hancock
Fossil evidence suggests that the Cathartid (New World) vultures have been around for quite some time with two fossil species dated from the early Oligocene (about 35 million years ago). During the Pliocene and Pleistocene (about 2 million years ago) th...
Peterson, Richard S., and George A. Bartholomew. {The Natural History and Behavior of the California Sea Lion}. Los Angeles: American Society of Mammalogists, 1967.
The Triceratops was discovered near Denver, Colorado, in 1889. It was discovered by a Paleontologist by the name of Othniel C. Marsh. The first fossil that was discovered was mistakenly identified as an extinct species of Buffalo. A Triceratops skull was discovered in 1888 by John Bell Hatcher. A majority of the fossils were found in North America. Most were found in northern United States, to the Southern parts of Canada. The fossils were in good condition and fairly intact when discovered in Denver.
Zimmer, C. (2013, December 5). Baffling 400,000-Year-Old Clue to Human Origins. New York Times, p. A10(L). Retrieved from http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/scic/NewsDetailsPage/NewsDetailsWindow
What it looks like: Siberian tiger is the largest and most rare of all members of the cat family. This cat is 8-10 feet long, excluding their 25-38 inch rattling tail. This species of tiger weighs 400-700 pounds. Like all members of the tiger family, males are significantly larger than females.
Sikes, Roberts. and William L. Gannon. "Guidelines of the American Society of Mammalogists for the Use of Wild Mammals in Research." Journal of Mammalogy 92.1 (Feb. 2011): 235-253. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 5 Oct. 2011.