Paleontologists discover new San Diego saber-toothed catlike species

Paleontologist Ashley Poust holds the 42-million-year-old fossilized jawbone of the newly discovered Diegoaelurus. Behind him is the skull of the much larger Smilodon, or saber-toothed cat, from the more recent Pleistocene era. SAN DIEGO —

A newly discovered saber-toothed catlike predator that hunted in the forests and coastal areas of this region 42 million years ago has been given the name Diegoaelurus, or “San Diego’s cat,” the San Diego Natural History Museum announced today.

The discovery of Diegoaelurus — which is now the earliest known cat-like predator in North America west of the Rocky Mountains — was unveiled this morning in PeerJ, an international open-access science journal. The discovery was described in a research paper co-written by Ashley Poust, the museum’s postdoctoral researcher, Shawn Zack at the University of Arizona College of Medicine and fellow San Diego Nat paleontologist Hugh Wagner, who gave the new species its name.

The lower jaw and […]

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