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research worker inChinahave find the remains of a cat that was so small it could have cuddle in the decoration of your manus . The fossils were discovered late within a cave where early humans lived .
The pouch - size feline is a newfound mintage , Prionailurus kurteni , which the scientists describe in a study put out Nov. 19 , 2024 in the journalAnnales Zoologici Fennici . The research worker believe that the out animate being , which could go out as far back as 300,000 years , may be the smallest cat ever regain .
The never before seen speciesPrionailurus kurteniis based on fossils (right) found in a cave in China. It was comparable in size with the smallest cats living today, such as the rusty-spotted cat (left).
The new identified species is part of the leopard cat genusPrionailurus , a crime syndicate of wild cats that still exists today in South Asia . While most modern - daytime leopard cats are closer in sizing to domesticated big cat — which reach average distance of 28 inches ( 70 centimeters ) and weigh at least 4.4 pounds ( 2 kilograms ) — the new coinage was more diminutive .
" This cat is clear smaller than a domestic cat . It is corresponding to the smallest surviving cat , [ at around ] 1 kilogram [ 2.2 pounds ] , " chair authorQigao Jiangzuo , a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology , told Live Science .
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Today , the smallest living gaga cat metal money are the black - footed cat ( Felis nigripes ) and the rusty - spot cat ( Prionailurus rubiginosus ) , which are about 13.7 to 20.4 in ( 35 to 52 cm ) and 13.7 to 18.9 inches ( 35 to 48 cm ) long severally . Based on the newfound species ' fossilized remains , the researcher estimated that the extinct felid was just about the same size of it , or possibly smaller , than both the mod - Clarence Shepard Day Jr. species , estimating that it measured between 13.7 and 19.7 inches ( 50 centimeter ) , Jiangzuo said .
Clues to the aliveness and size of this miniature felid come from a single , fossilised fragment of its lower jawbone , unadulterated with two teeth , which was discovered in a palaeontological hot spot in easterly China called Hualongdong Cave .
" Cats are coarse element in the Quaternary [ the geological period that spans from 2.58 million old age ago until today ] deposit of cave . However , finding such a diminished quat is a surprisal , " Jiangzuo said .
Fossilized rest of leopard cat ancestors are rare , because these creature be given to live in unsheltered woodland environs where their clappers disgrace more cursorily , meaning few prehistorical specimen have pull through . But in the protective environment of the cave , the clappers of the recently let on specimen were preserved , giving the researchers a unique opportunity to examine them .
The prehistoric Panthera pardus cat-o'-nine-tails may have wandered into the cave in pursuit of rats and mice that may have been feeding on food refuse leave behind by early human habitant that once lived in Hualongdong Cave , the investigator told theSouth China Morning Post .
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The fain slant of one of the mini computed tomography ’s tooth also connect the prehistoric Panthera pardus cat to the common ascendant of domesticated cats and a coinage called the Pallas ’s cat ( Otocolobus Pallas’s cat ) . While it was already known that Panthera pardus Arabian tea portion out heritage with these other species , the Hualongdong Cave finding provide the first fogy evidence of that link .
According to the report , the leopard cat phratry is the most divers cat genus in the southerly and southeastern forests of Asia , with five living species spread across the neighborhood . The cave specimen add valuable point to this family history : " The new species for the first time expose the past variety of this genus , " Jianghuo said .
This has give way the researchers new data with which to enquire the bloodline of all cats , he added . " We be after to consistently follow the dodo cats in China and around the world , which were not well studied in the yesteryear . We hope to trace the origins and retiring diversity of the cat family . "
