The American “cheetah” wasn’t a cheetah at all
The extinct “American cheetah” was not really a cheetah at all, but a puma relative with an unexpectedly flexible lifestyle. Fossils from the Yukon suggest northern populations survived partly by eating fish, possibly including salmon, while southern cats hunted on land.
The American cheetah, known as Miracinonyx trumani, was not a true cheetah, according to a study published in Current Biology. This extinct North American predator was closely related to modern pumas, not cheetahs, sharing a common ancestor about 4.7 million years ago. Unlike the cheetah, M. trumani had a more varied diet, which included fish in the Arctic, while some Wyoming populations preyed on herbivores.
Researchers found that the American cheetah had high adaptability, surviving in diverse environments from subtropics to the Arctic. Its adaptation may have been due to the loss of genes involved in circadian rhythm regulation, hinting at a possible nocturnal lifestyle at high latitudes.
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