News Paleontology

Was the ‘American cheetah’ a cheetah at all?

Ancient DNA shows the feline's closest living relatives are pumas, not cheetahs

An illustration shows a slender cheetahlike cat chasing an antelope with a big nose across a barren landscape

The feline Miracinonyx trumani got its nickname, the “American cheetah,” from its slender, long-limbed body, reminiscent of an African cheetah. While the extinct Pleistocene predator did hunt down speedy prey, such as saiga antelope (illustrated), a new study shows some animals ate a diet of mostly fish, suggesting the species was more adaptable than previously thought.

Velizar Simeonovski

By Erin Garcia de Jesús

Tens of thousands of years ago, a long-legged cat nicknamed the “American cheetah” prowled North America.