Turkish museum fossil identified as 2.5 million-year-old big cat
The fossil, dug up near Yakakoy village in 1989, is the most complete example of its kind found in Anatolia, researchers said.
A fossil stored for decades in a southwestern Türkiye museum was identified on Monday as the remains of a prehistoric big cat, Turkey's state-run news agency Anadolu Agency reported.
The bones were unearthed in 1989 near Yakakoy village and have been held at the Burdur Natural History Museum ever since.
The fossil belongs to Homotherium latidens, an extinct species of large predatory cat, the researchers said.
Alper Yener Yavuz, an associate professor of anthropology at Burdur Mehmet Akif Ersoy University, leads the research team, which began studying the specimen in 2023.
Geological and anthropological analyses showed that the jaw is largely intact, making it the most complete example of its kind identified in Anatolia, the Asian part of modern Türkiye, Yavuz said.
Using geological and faunal dating methods, the scientists placed the animal at roughly 2.5 million years old.
Standing about 1.2 meters (4 feet) at the shoulder and around 2 meters (6.6 feet) from head to tail, the cat was slightly smaller than a modern lion but larger than a jaguar, Yavuz said.
Rather than waiting in ambush, the species was built for chasing prey, and its wider nasal cavity let it take in oxygen more efficiently while running, Yavuz explained.
Yavuz said the new find brings the number of such specimens known in Türkiye to four.
The researchers plan further field surveys in Burdur and the neighboring province of Isparta to look for more evidence of the region's prehistoric past.
Homotherium is a genus of extinct big cats whose fossils have been found across Eurasia, Africa and North America.
