The American Cheetah: Miracinonyx trumani

Publication Info:

Transcript:

Molly Cassatt-Johnstone et al. Range and diet diversity in the Pleistocene American ‘cheetah,’ Miracinonyx trumani. Current Biology, published online September 4, 2026; doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2026.07.072

The "American Cheetah" or Miracinonyx trumani lived in what's now North America more than 13,000 years ago. It may have looked a lot like modern cheetahs, but according to new genetic data it wasn't even that closely related. New fossils and genetic sequencing have unlocked the truth about this prehistoric hyper carnivore!

Episode 339

Notes:

So, apparently the American cheetah isn't. The American cheetah, or Miracinonyx trumani, is a large predatory cat that lived in North America more than 13,000 years ago. It was about 3 ft tall, 150 lb, a big, lightly built, agile cat. At least, superficially, it looked a whole lot like a modern cheetah, or at least its skeleton did. So, it made sense that people thought it was an early cheetah, especially because in North America, we have large, fast prey animals like the pronghorn, which is one of the fastest animals on the planet. So, if you think about it, why would it evolve to be so fast if it didn't have extremely fast predators that it was evolving alongside? Luckily, thanks to new genetic data, we don't really have to make assumptions like that anymore. And it turns out that Miracinonyx, while it may look very cheetah-like, isn't really that closely related to modern cheetahs. It's a lot like how people used to think that dire wolves were big wolves, and the saber-tooth cat, or saber-tooth tiger, was a big tiger. Both of which have been found to be completely inaccurate. It turns out the American cheetah was definitely not a cheetah. It was its own animal with no great modern analog. That said, its closest living relative is the modern puma, but it diverged from that line roughly 2.6 million years ago. And according to isotopic data, like the modern puma, it could thrive in various ecosystems with variable prey. That said, it did have something in common with modern cheetahs, being its extremely low genetic diversity. These animals, like the last saber-tooth cats, were pretty inbred. Just not quite as bad as the modern cheetah. According to researchers, this wasn't what led to their extinction, but it was definitely notable. As usual, if you want more information, here's the source.