Discovery of jaguar from northeastern China middle Pleistocene reveals an intercontinental dispersal event

ABSTRACT

The fossil record of jaguar lineage (or jaguar-like animal), i.e., Panthera gombaszogensis and Panthera onca, is one of the best and complete among the mammals, making it one of the best-known living species with knowledge of origin, dispersal, and morphological evolution. However, a large gap is present in eastern Asia, which is the gateway for jaguar migration from the Old World to the New World. Here we report a nearly complete mandible from the Middle Pleistocene deposits of Jinyuan Cave, Luotuo Hill of Jinpu New District, Dalian, Liaoning Province of northeastern China. The mandibular morphology fits that of the jaguar, and the dental traits are closest to P. gombaszogensis and Irvingtonian P. onca, but shows robust premolars and represents a new subspecies P. g. jinpuensis. The new find fills the geographic gap for jaguar linage, and supports a northern dispersal routine from western Asia-central Asia-northeastern China to North America, whereas the southern China Early Pleistocene seems to be occupied by a similar sized but taxonomically different pantherine cat.

KEYWORDS:

• Panthera gombaszogensis
• Panthera onca
• Jinyuan Cave
• middle Pleistocene
• northeastern Asia
• dispersal routine

Acknowledgments

We are thankful to J. Meng, R. O’Leary and J. Galkin for their help in accessing the AMNH fossil mammal collections; M. Surovy, E. Hoeger and S. Ketelsen for their help in accessing the AMNH modern mammal collections; A. Millhouse, D. Lunde and J. J. Ososky for their help in accessing the USNM fossil and modern mammal collections; M. Omura for his help in accessing the MCZ modern mammal collections; Y. Chen for great artwork. The present study is supported by the Chinese Natural Science Foundation Program (grant number 42102001 and 41772018), Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (grant number XDA20070203 and XDB26000000), Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research Grant (2019QZKK0705), Administrative Committee of Dalian Jinpu New District, Liaoning Province (The Comprehensive Research Project on Quaternary vertebrate fossils from Luotuo Hill, Dalian).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research Grant [2019QZKK0705]; Chinese Natural Science Foundation Program [42102001 and 41772018]; Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences [XDA20070203 and XDB26000000];Administrative Committee of Dalian Jinpu New District, Liaoning Province (The Comprehensive Research Project on Quaternary vertebrate fossils from Luotuo Hill, Dalian)