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China may take cheetah title
By Lu Feiran |
January 9, 2009, Friday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
THE cheetah may have originated in the Old World - perhaps even China - and not in the Americas, according to a researcher at the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum.
The researcher, Huang Ji, and Danish paleontologist Per Christiansen date-tested a cheetah skull discovered in Linxia in northwest China's Gansu Province, and found it came from the late Pliocene period about 2.2 to 2.5 million years ago. The age was about the same as that of a specimen unearthed earlier in North America.
Huang and Christiansen's research findings were published in the US-based Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in the magazine's December edition. In their report, the researchers said the teeth of the cheetah fossil in Gansu looked more primitive than those found in North America.
Scientists hold different views on where the world's fastest land animal originated.
The American paleontologist Daniel Adams published an essay titled "The Cheetahs: Native American" in the late 1970s.
The museum declined to comment yesterday on the researchers' findings. It said little more than that Huang started his work at the facility in 2000.
"He was a very low-key staff member," said museum employee Li Jun. "He researched specimens that were part of his personal interest, sponsored by a foreign institute."
Museum officials said they will explain the cheetah findings to the public next week by providing more detailed information.
The cheetah is among the world's most threatened species, with an estimated adult population of only 7,500, said the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
The researcher, Huang Ji, and Danish paleontologist Per Christiansen date-tested a cheetah skull discovered in Linxia in northwest China's Gansu Province, and found it came from the late Pliocene period about 2.2 to 2.5 million years ago. The age was about the same as that of a specimen unearthed earlier in North America.
Huang and Christiansen's research findings were published in the US-based Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in the magazine's December edition. In their report, the researchers said the teeth of the cheetah fossil in Gansu looked more primitive than those found in North America.
Scientists hold different views on where the world's fastest land animal originated.
The American paleontologist Daniel Adams published an essay titled "The Cheetahs: Native American" in the late 1970s.
The museum declined to comment yesterday on the researchers' findings. It said little more than that Huang started his work at the facility in 2000.
"He was a very low-key staff member," said museum employee Li Jun. "He researched specimens that were part of his personal interest, sponsored by a foreign institute."
Museum officials said they will explain the cheetah findings to the public next week by providing more detailed information.
The cheetah is among the world's most threatened species, with an estimated adult population of only 7,500, said the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
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