Welcome to Acinonyx pardinensis (Giant cheetah)
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Name Definition
Thorn claw (genus name definition)
Name Given By
Acinonyx pardinensis was named by Croizet & Jobert in 1828
Location
Fossils found all across Asia, Europe, and Africa
Classification
Mammalia, Carnivora, Feliformia, Felidae, Felinae, Acinonyx
Size
around 1 meter tall, about 3 meters in length, 90 kg (roughly 198 lbs)
Temporal Range
Early - Mid Pleistocene of the Quaternary period , roughly 2 million years ago
Ecological niche
a fast sprinting predator
Species/Sub Species
A. p. aicha, A. p. arvernesis, A. p. pardinensis, A. p. pleistocaenicus, A. p. intermedius, A. p. linxiaensis
Diet
The giant cheetah was capable of taking down prey larger than the modern cheetah’s typical prey which was the Thomson’s gazelle, and the giant cheetah could have hunted elk and sambar deer
Introduction
Acinonyx pardinensis, colloquially known as the giant cheetah, is a species of cheetahs that lived in Northern continents like Asia and Europe as well as Africa. The giant cheetah was about twice the size of the modern cheetah with a shoulder height of a lion. The larger size of Acinonyx pardinensis suggests a preference for larger prey items, though it would have hunted similar to the modern day cheetah, which is a method that is seen nowhere else in the felid lineage. The modern day cheetah usually walks toward prey on open plains without crouching, meaning they are clearly not ambush predators. Once it comes within a proximity suitable enough from the prey, it starts to sprint forward. Cheetahs are very agile and will continue to pursue its prey, taking many turns with its long tail, until either it runs out of stamina or it successfully catches its prey using an enlarged dew claw (a digit on cheetahs that grow significantly higher on the foot that others) to hook the hind leg and make its prey lose balance. Once the prey succumbs to the injury, the cheetah will usually clamp its jaws on its throat giving a powerful bite to suffocate and kill the prey. After regaining enough energy, cheetahs will start to eat as much as possible to make sure it has its fill once a larger predator comes by and steals the carcass. Based on the skeletal structure, the giant cheetah would have used a similar hunting method like the modern day cheetah. Because of the weaker jaw muscles, severing other body parts wouldn’t have been an option for the giant cheetah, so it would have frequented a bite on the throat. However, the giant cheetah was larger and possessed a stronger set of jaws than the modern day cheetah. It was also heavier, so despite the long legs, the giant cheetah would have also been slower than the modern day cheetah. The cat would have also avoided from consuming bones based on the structure of its carnassials (the upper premolar and lower molar of a carnivoran mammal which are designed to slice through flesh). Most fossil remains of Acinonyx pardinensis are found in fluvial deposits (sediments deposited by the water of a stream) which indicate that it lived and hunted on open grasslands where it could capitalize on its superior agility, however, some fossils were recovered caves which, yet again, supports the idea that many Pleistocene animals seeked caves as a home. These fossils were found, as said earlier, around Asia, Europe, Africa, which indicates that the widespread distribution of the giant cheetah made it one of the most successful predators before it went extinct in the Early Holocene. The main factor scientists speculate to have contributed to its extinction is climate change, which caused a shift in ecosystems and animals, and only the most adaptable animals could live in these kinds of conditions. For example, Africa, a continent where the giant cheetah’s remains have been found, was much richer in resources during the Pleistocene than today, but over the last few thousand years, northern Africa started to dry up. This caused many rivers and floodplains to become vacant of water. The ecosystems’ faunas started to change to animals that the giant cheetah was not well adapted to hunt. However, the modern cheetah is well adapted to these kinds of environments and started to thrive, with the only threat being human predation.