Discover the oldest tiger species on Earth

Scientists have discovered traces of very high-level lakes in China. However, this tiger is extinct on Earth.

Dr. Andrew Kitchener and colleagues at the Scottish National Museum discovered a new species of tiger that lived on Earth 2.16 million years ago to 2.55 million years, after analyzing bone fossils. The skull was excavated in the area near Longdan village in Gansu province (China) in 2004. This is the oldest tiger discovered so far.

Panthera zdanskyi tiger image is erected
Computer-based skulls were discovered. (Photo: Livescience)

Scientists named the newly discovered tiger, Panthera zdanskyi - after the Austrian paleontologist Otto Zdansky, who has made new discoveries about fossils of ancient carnivores at China.

The Panthera zdanskyi tiger 's skull is quite small, just the size of the smallest modern tiger's skull. However, features such as canines, long noses of the Panthera zdanskyi are relatively similar to today's tigers. Scientists surmise that the world's oldest tiger food is hoofed animals like deer and pigs.

Panthera zdanskyi tiger skull fossil

'The oldest detection of tigers ever has a very important meaning to help scientists better understand the evolutionary history of cat-like animals and their relationship' , Dr. Andrew Kitchener, head of research, said on LiveScience.

Researchers believe that Panthera zdanskyi is the ancestor of today's modern tiger. Although Panthera zdanskyi tigers have a small skull size, the skull size has gradually increased during evolution to be able to hunt larger sized prey.

The oldest known tiger species was Panthera tigris. The fossil of this tiger dates back to 2 million years ago, discovered in central China. The fossil analysis showed that Panthera tigris has a body length of about 4m, including the tail and weighs 300kg.