Skulls, Skeletons, Canines & Claws

[tigerluver]

(05-23-2021, 08:58 AM)Panthera Wrote:

(05-20-2021, 02:42 AM)tigerluver Wrote: I also wanted to check to confirm the blue P4 is tiger and not cave lion. Observe the lower position of the protocone relative to the preparastyle in the cave lion:

*This image is copyright of its original author

Fig. 2. Upper carnassials from the Bi´snikBi´snik Cave. Panthera spelaea fossilis: 1) JB/Ps/112, 2) JB/Ps/108. Panthera spelaea spelaea: 3) JB/Ps/107, 4) JB/Ps/106. Natural size.

Now compare that to the blue P4, which has a highly positioned protocone like that of the tiger:

*This image is copyright of its original author

This feature is quite diagnostic and solidifies its classification to the tiger. Interesting you can see the high position of the protocone (as well as the straight buccal border) in the P4 of the giant Szechuan skull @GrizzlyClaws posted.

@GrizzlyClaws The Late Pleistocene tiger from Sichuan is very huge, Thanks for sharing!

Thanks a lot @tigerluver for your quickly response and suggestion and data. We can diagnosis the candidate species based on these features in the future. I also spent two days reading this paper, this is very helpful for diagnosing big cat tooth(additionally, know more about the evolution of the jaguar), thanks. The probability yellow and blue P4 fossil are tiger tooth is very high now.

Base on the yellow P4 is tiger and tiger's fossil age record in southern China, I consider it come from Ailuropoda-Stegodon fauna(a general and main fauna in southern China from mid Pleistocene) which age is mid Pleistocene to late Pleistocene. As far as I know, southern China no tiger reports before mid Pleistocene. 
I also want to correct the site of the yellow P4 fossil, I said/wrote something wrong after I check my note card again. The right area where it find is northern Guizhou Province, not Yunnan but adjacent Yunnan. On the other hand, a paper (Zhao et al., 2016) reported a Ailuropoda-Stegodon fauna in northern Guizhou Province materials include tiger fossil tooth(Fig. 10), even the material color and quality is as same as the yellow P4 as far as I look. According to the dating results of medium-grained polymineral extract (tab.2), the age of animals fossil layer on this site is 112-178 ka. Maybe the yellow P4 is same age. 
If so, this yellow P4 fossil survived in subtropical forest habitat with warm-humid climate in in Middle-Late Pleistocene, more likely in late Middle Pleistocene or early Late Pleistocene; the area is just near/in the north of Indochina-South of China and it is specimen before the Toba eruption event about 78,000 year ago. Supplement above.

Very impressive analysis. Often the private specimens do come from the same published localities (museums often buy from onsite collectors). Therefore, it's quite reasonable the yellow P4 is from the same fauna as Zhao et al. (2016) given the striking similarity in preservation. The enamel is also rather fresh which that somewhat younger age. 

Is the length of the P. tigris M1 in figure 10 (#4) reported in Zhao et al. (2016)? Using the scale bar I measured an M1 length of 29, which is of around 400 mm greatest skull length tiger. If that's accurate, it seems 400+ mm skulls were average for Late Pleistocene Chinese tiger. Reply