Panthera zdanskyi

Skull of Panthera zdanskyi

• Gansu, People's Republic of China

Panthera ( named after the locality as Longdan Tiger ) zdanskyi is an extinct Großkatzenart whose fossil remains were discovered in Gansu Province in northwestern China, 2004. Named after the Austrian paleontologist Otto A. Zdansky big cat was described in 2011 and is the oldest known relative of the tiger (Panthera tigris ).

Features

The holotype biopsi 00177 Panthera zdanskyi consists of a nearly complete skull and lower jaw. The paratype IVPP 13538 includes the rostrum, the premaxillary bone, the maxilla and the bulk of the teeth, the kind of Panthera palaeosinensis was originally assigned. The Terra typica is the eastern slope of Longdan, which is south of the Dongxiang Autonomous Okrug located. The age of the material is dated to the Gelasian, the oldest epoch of the Pleistocene from 2.55 to 2.16 million years. The skull is the oldest large cat skull that has ever been unearthed.

Phylogeny

The cladogram has Panthera zdanskyi as a sister taxon of Panthera tigris. The way is thus regarded as a close relative of the extant tiger. The cladogram follows Mazák, Christiansen and Kitchener (2011) and based on analysis of the cranial construction and the tooth structure.

Clouded Leopard ( Neofelis )

Snow leopard ( P. uncia )

P. palaeosinensis

Jaguar ( P. onca )

American lion ( P. atrox )

Cave lion ( P. spelaea )

Lion ( P. leo)

Leopard ( P. pardus )

Tiger ( P. tigris )

P. zdanskyi