The fossil skull of the Panthera blytheae, the precursor to all modern lions, tigers and leopards was found in the Himalayas Scientists have found in the Tibetan Himalayas the fossil skull of the oldest known big cat, the precursor to all modern lions, tigers and leopards, pushing back the fossil record of these animals by at least 2m years and lending weight to the idea that they evolved in Asia, rather than Africa, where the previous oldest fossil was found. The species, named Panthera blytheae, would have lived between 4-6m years ago in cold regions of the Himalayas. “In terms of the overall size it would be a little bit smaller than a snow leopard– the size of a clouded leopard and those living cats grow up to around 20kg [44lb],” said Jack Tseng, a postdoctoral fellow at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, who led the team that discovered the fossil.

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