Malaga, (EFE) , although with its own features that make it a unique species, of which there is no analogous feline today.
Researchers from the University of Malaga (UMA), Valladolid (UVa) and Wisconsin-Madison in the United States have now shed light on the characteristics of this extinct feline, mainly through the study of its hunting method, which has been subjected to debate in recent decades.
By analyzing its skeleton, paleontologists have shown that Miracinonyx trumani, despite having long, light legs, was not as prepared as previously thought to run after its prey, as Old World cheetahs do.
The Wisconsin Skeleton
The results of the study, published in the journal ‘Biology letters’, also show that the Miracinonyx’s nails were retractable and that it had the ability to struggle with its prey, like other cats, with the exception of the cheetah.
Thus, although its appearance was very similar to that of a modern cheetah, its way of hunting was more similar to that of a puma, Borja Figueirido, a researcher in the UMA’s Paleontology area and lead author of the study, explained to EFE.
To reach this conclusion, the researchers examined a Miracinonyx skeleton found in a chasm in Wisconsin, USA, and compared it with other modern cat species, such as pumas, lions or lynxes.
The experts focused especially on the elbow joint, which allows us to know if the animal is adapted to hunting by holding its prey with its front legs or can chase them at high speed.
Miracinonyx’s humerus was oval and elongated at the end closest to the elbow, implying that its forearm bones were further apart and therefore had the ability to hunt its prey by grabbing it, much like the puma.
The modern cheetah’s distal humerus, by contrast, is squarer and more shortened, meaning their forearm bones are closer together and they have difficulty grasping prey with their forelegs. This characteristic, on the other hand, gives it the advantage of being able to sprint at high speed.
Use of 3D technology
«The case of cheetahs is really unusual, in a few seconds they can reach almost 100 kilometers per hour. They are the supercars of the savannah,” says Figueirido.
This is not the case of the Miracinonyx, which, although it had a greater ability to manipulate its front legs, its physiognomy prevented it from reaching a speed similar to that of the modern cheetah. It was not, therefore, such a sprinting predator, says Alberto Martín Serra, paleontologist at the UMA and co-author of the work.
Another recent study by this research team, published in the journal ‘iScience’, corroborates this hypothesis. The paleontologists analyzed whether the brain architecture of Miracinonyx was similar to that of the cheetah, and the results, again, showed clear differences between one and the other.
Using 3D technology, paleontologists virtually filled in the intracranial space where the brain is housed, obtaining an internal cast of the brain surface of Miracinonyx trumani, which they compared to the modern cheetah and puma.
The brain surface of Miracinonyx turns out to be more similar to that of the puma than the cheetah: the old American cheetah was not cognitively prepared to hunt by high-speed running, among other things because it had an underdeveloped sinus, like the puma. .
Questions to solve
“Probably, the Miracinonyx was an intermediate form between the cheetah and the puma,” says Figueirido, who stresses that its “peculiar” way of hunting “is not currently represented in nature.”
The Miracinonyx had a faster run than the puma, but without reaching the speeds of the cheetah, and its hunting area was not limited to large prairies or open spaces, since remains of this feline have also been found in rocky areas and high mountain.
“I think Miracinonyx was in some ways between the puma and the cheetah, but it had other things about it that you don’t find today. No modern feline is analogous to Miracinonyx,” insists Alejandro Pérez Ramos, another UMA researcher involved in the study.
Miracinonyx, then, had a common ancestor with the puma and tended to resemble the cheetah, but “at some point in evolution it went its own way.”
After these first two studies, researchers from the University of Malaga, Valladolid and Wisconsin-Madison want to study the complete forelimbs and the anatomy of the inner ear of Miracinonyx with the aim of deciphering the questions that still remain to be resolved about this singular North American fossil cat. EFE