Panthera zdanskyi || Longdan Tiger || The Most Primitive Pantherine

The Longdan tiger or Panthera zdanskyi is an extinct species of pantherine known from the Gansu province of northwestern China.
Fossils were collected in 2004 in the east slope of Longdan, south of Dongxiang Autonomous County, dating to the Gelasian stage of the earliest Pleistocene, about 2.55–2.16 million years ago.
The specific name honors the Austrian paleontologist Otto A. Zdansky for his contributions to the understanding of Neogene Chinese fossil carnivorans.
Due to its close relationship with the modern tiger (Panthera tigris), it is called the Longdan tiger.
Panthera zdanskyi is known from the holotype BIOPSI 00177, a nearly complete skull and mandible.
It's the oldest complete skull ever discovered of a 'pantherine' big cat - the big cats we know today - and may help to understand how today's animals evolved.
The skull is a little smaller than the head of today's tigers - about the size of a jaguar - but it's very recognizable as the same species we know today.
It is also known and from another fossil (the paratype IVPP 13538), a rostrum, premaxilla and maxilla and much of the dentition, originally referred to Panthera palaeosinensis.
It's got conspicuously long, large upper canines which proportionally outsize those of jaguars, leopards and lions and even a bit longer than tigers.
It is estimated that this animal could weight from 80-100 Kg (176-220 lb).
It seems likely that this tiger's diet would have been similar to that of todays and would have included ungulates such as deer and pigs.
The evolutionary trend of increasing size in the tiger lineage is likely coupled with its prey evolving larger body sizes.
Its extinction reasons are not known but climate change and changing prey base is most likely the factor.

# Pantherazdanskyi #longdantiger #extinctionblog

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