A fossil skull, mislabeled and forgotten in a museum drawer for decades, turned out to be a rare saber-toothed cat. This ancient cat roamed western North America about five million years ago.
A Hidden Treasure Discovered
In 2022, Narimane Chatar, a paleontology graduate student, was scanning museum collections for her research on saber-toothed cats. While looking through drawers at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, she found something unusual.
"I saw this cranium that was labeled Pseudaelurus," Chatar told Popular Science.
The name Pseudaelurus is often used for cat-like fossils when their exact lineage is unclear. Chatar was surprised because this cranium was complete. She thought it could belong to a more specific species.
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Start Your News DetoxSmilodon* and Barbourofelis). Image: Narimane Chatar/UC Berkeley.*
Chatar, now a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, was finishing her PhD at the time. She didn't have time to investigate further. Last summer, she finally revisited the specimen.
She used scans from her New York visit to create a 3D model of the fossil. Then, she compared it to other fossil scans from various museums.
"I basically took the 3D model of the specimen, opened it on one screen, and then would open other 3D models on my other screen and compare them," she explained.
Caption: A collection of 3D scans of fossil sabertooth skulls from various groups. These range from recent times (Smilodon populator, which disappeared around 8,000 BCE) to over 35 million years ago. A more ancient cat-like sabertooth from the Nimravid family (3 to 5 o’clock) rivaled Smilodon in canine length. It went extinct about seven million years ago. Crania from older lineages have shorter upper canines than newer ones. This shows an evolutionary trend toward longer canines among all types of sabertooths. Image: Narimane Chatar/UC Berkeley.
Unlocking Ancient Secrets
This comparison confirmed her long-held suspicion. The skull belonged to Adelphailurus kansensis. This puma-sized species was previously known only from jaw fragments and teeth.
The findings, published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, help clarify A. kansensis's place in the saber-toothed cat family tree. Researchers now understand its skull anatomy. An artist was even able to reconstruct the animal's appearance for the first time.
Most people think of saber-toothed cats like Smilodon, with canines up to eight inches long. A. kansensis is an older species with shorter upper canines. Studying it helps researchers understand how Smilodon's extreme features evolved.
Chatar emphasizes the importance of looking at old collections again. "The specimen had been there for 50, 60 years, lost in the drawers, labeled something else," she said. "It reminds us that it’s really important to go back to those collections and open every single drawer."
She noted that some of the best fossils in museums are not on display. "We have little treasures hidden from the public everywhere in museums."
Scientists still have much to learn about A. kansensis. For example, they don't know what the prehistoric cat looked like below its skull. This information could help them understand how the species ran and hunted.
"Who knows, maybe some material is waiting to be discovered in another museum," Chatar concluded.
Deep Dive & References
A new cranium of Adelphailurus kansensis (Carnivora, Felidae, Machairodontinae) from the late Hemphillian of Kansas and the evolution of saber-toothed cats - Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 2024
