Ancient Jaguars

[KRA123]

*This image is copyright of its original author

 I don't think this specimen has been posted in this thread before. The image is from this pdf. According to the text, the prosthion-basion length of the skull is 227.8mm, or around 8.969 inches. I attempted to calculate the greatest length of the skull based on its apparent length relative to the scale bar in the photo. My results fluctuated but average out to around 10.25 inches. This might not be a very reliable method, but either way the skull is clearly well within the range of modern jaguar skulls length-wise. The text describes this specimen as " from a very large jaguar", but it's worth noting that, according to the same text, Kurten (1973: Fig. 1) briefly reported on this skull and concluded that it was a female jaguar on the basis of its relatively small size for P. onca augusta. Really though, measurements of augusta and mesembrina skulls have already been posted on WildFact, and they show skulls within the range of those of modern jaguars, so this is nothing new. I'm just making this post for people more unfamiliar with the late Pleistocene large jaguars. Reply