Picture, above: Himalayan big cat fossil is oldest ever found Researchers working in the Himalayan Mountains have unearthed a treasure trove of fossils, including what is now the oldest 'big cat' fossil ever found.  All cats — big and small — have been traced back by genetics to a common ancestor that lived in Asia, up to 7 million years ago. However, so far, the oldest fossil evidence for the 'big cat' part of the feline family tree has been found in eastern Africa, dating back to about 3.8 million years ago. So, there has been a large gap to fill.

Panthera blytheae resembles a modern snow leopard.  Big cats similar to today’s snow leopard have prowled the Himalayas for the last 6 million years, an analysis of newly described fossils reveals1. The remains of Panthera blytheae extend the known lineage of pantherine cats by at least 2 million years and bolster the notion that this group of carnivores originated in Asia.

Researchers unearthed bones representing at least three individuals in southwestern Tibet. The most complete remnants include a partial adult skull with several teeth still embedded in the upper jaw, says Jack Tseng, a vertebrate palaeontologist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Those fragments were excavated from rocks about 4.42 million years old, but other fossils belonging to the same species came from nearby strata that were laid down about 5.95 million years ago, he and his colleagues report today in Proceedings of the Royal Society B1.

“These are beautiful fossils of great significance,” says Zhe-Xi Luo, a vertebrate palaeontologist at the University of Chicago in Illinois who was not involved in the study. “They add an evolutionary root to the pantherine family tree.”

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

Hour One

Sunday  19 January 2014 / Hour 1, Block A: The Captain Who Burned His Ships: Captain Thomas Tingey, USN, 1750-1829 by Gordon S. Brown (1 of 2)

Sunday 19 January 2014  / Hour 1, Block B: The Captain Who Burned His Ships: Captain Thomas Tingey, USN, 1750-1829 by Gordon S. Brown (2 of 2)

Sunday 19 January 2014  / Hour 1, Block C: Sid Perkins, Science magazine, in re: Pantherine cats, snow leopards. 

Sunday 19 January 2014  / Hour 1, Block D: John Paul Jones: America's First Sea Warrior by Joseph Callo

Hour Two

Sunday 19 January 2014  / Hour 2, Block A: The Honored Dead: A Story of Friendship, Murder, and the Search for Truth in the Arab World by Joseph Braude (1 of 2)

Sunday 19 January 2014  / Hour 2, Block B: The Honored Dead: A Story of Friendship, Murder, and the Search for Truth in the Arab World by Joseph Braude (2 of 2)

Sunday 19 January 2014  / Hour 2, Block C: Shooter: The Autobiography of the Top-Ranked Marine Sniper by Jack Coughlin, Casey Kuhlman and Donald A. Davis

Sunday 19 January 2014  / Hour 2, Block D:  Sid Perkins, Science magazine, in re: Global warming

Hour Three

Sunday 19 January 2014  / Hour 3, Block A: Bailout: How Washington Abandoned Main Street While Rescuing Wall Street by Neil Barofsky (1 of 4)

Sunday 19 January 2014  / Hour 3, Block B: Bailout: How Washington Abandoned Main Street While Rescuing Wall Street by Neil Barofsky (2 of 4)

Sunday 19 January 2014  / Hour 3, Block C: Bailout: How Washington Abandoned Main Street While Rescuing Wall Street by Neil Barofsky (3 of 4)

Sunday 19 January 2014  / Hour 3, Block D: Bailout: How Washington Abandoned Main Street While Rescuing Wall Street by Neil Barofsky (4 of 4)

Hour Four

Sunday 19 January 2014  / Hour 4, Block A: The Black Banners: The Inside Story of 9/11 and the War Against al-Qaeda by Ali H. Soufan and Daniel Freedman (1 of 4)

Sunday 19 January 2014  / Hour 4, Block B: The Black Banners: The Inside Story of 9/11 and the War Against al-Qaeda by Ali H. Soufan and Daniel Freedman (2 of 4)

Sunday 19 January 2014  / Hour 4, Block C: The Black Banners: The Inside Story of 9/11 and the War Against al-Qaeda by Ali H. Soufan and Daniel Freedman (3 of 4)

Sunday 19 January 2014  / Hour 4, Block D: The Black Banners: The Inside Story of 9/11 and the War Against al-Qaeda by Ali H. Soufan and Daniel Freedman (4 of 4)

..  ..  ..