A snow leopard
Fossil of the “Algar da Manga Larga Leopard”, found in Leiria, challenges long-held assumptions about the feline’s habitat preferences.
A snow leopard fossil discovered in Portugal, in Porto de Móswas investigated by an international team of scientists, which includes Portuguese, with the objectives of unraveling the mysteries of this endangered species and reinforcing conservation.
The discoveries about the evolution and adaptations of the snow leopard lineage during the last Ice Age, in Science Advances, have significant implications for the conservation of this lineage, according to the researchers, represented in Portugal by the Faculty of Science and Technology of the University Nova de Lisboa (NOVA FCT).
After all, habitat is another
The snow leopard is an elusive feline with reserved habits and, until now, it was believed to be the only one that lives exclusively at altitude, in the mountains of Central Asia.
However, the study of the partial skeleton — which includes a skull — of this specimen, discovered in 2000, known as the ‘Algar da Manga Larga Leopard‘, challenges long-held assumptions about this feline’s habitat preferences.
The skeleton of the Algar da Manga Larga leopard at the Geological Museum.
The study argues that snow leopards give priority to steep terrain and rocky and cold climateswithout necessarily needing high altitudes.
While common leopards evolved to hunt fast, agile prey in partially forested habitats, snow leopards developed distinctive kill characteristics. robust prey such as mountain goatsincluding larger molars, domed skulls, and stronger jaws and paws.
Their survival in rocky and barren terrain also depended on other fundamental adaptations: improved binocular vision, a large ectotympanic cranial structure for better hearing, powerful limbs to withstand the impact of jumping between rocks and a long tail for balance.
These adaptations developed rapidly during the Quaternary, particularly from the middle Pleistocene onwards (82,800 to 355,000 years ago on the geological time scale).
Future investigations will explore the neuroanatomy and paleoecology of the Manga Larga leopard, according to NOVA FCT.
“It was really a big surprise find a member of this lineage of felids in Pleistocene Portugal”, stated Darío Estraviz-López, a PhD student in Geology at NOVA FCT who is part of the research team, adding that this discovery was only possible thanks to great contextualization with other materials from the China.
The snow leopard has been classified as “vulnerable” species in 2017, after having been classified as an endangered species since 1972.
