Page 11 - American Jaguar; Big Cats, Biogeography, and Human Borders

these was Panthera, a group of big cats that would eventually become
what we recognize in the twenty-first century as lions, tigers, leopards,
and jaguars.

AGE OF GIANT BEASTS
Modern-day jaguars are remnants from the Pleistocene epoch, a
geologic period from 2.5 million to 13,000 years ago. During the
Pleistocene epoch, North America was dominated by huge mammals
such as mammoths and mastodons (creatures that share the same

African cheetah and mighty mountain lion are just oversized
small cats. In these small cats, the hyoid bone is ossified and
doesn’t have the
Hyoid elasticity (flexibility)
Apparatus in that helps produce
a Small Cat
a roar. However,
the small cats’ fully
tympanohyoideum
ossified hyoid bone
allows them to do

stylohyoideum- something that their
epihyoideum
big Panthera cousins
tongue
epihyoideum
thyrohyoideum basiyoideum cannot do: purr.
ceratohyoideum
Hyoid
Apparatus in Depending on the species,
a Big Cat cats have differently
structured hyoid bones.
tympanohyoideum
The bones affect the cats’
vocalizations. Those with
open hyoid bones can roar,
while those with closed
stylohyoideum-
epihyoideum ones can purr. This skeletal
tongue
difference distinguishes
epihyoideum
ceratohyoideum the “big cats” from the
basiyoideum “small cats.”
thyrohyoideum Cats are not drawn to scale.

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