Leopards Might Have Walked Alongside Neanderthals

An artist's interpretation of the leg fossil's potential owner. Credit: © Emiliano Troco

Leopards may have roamed across Italy alongside Neanderthals, a new study finds.

Scientists analyzed an ancient, well-preserved bone discovered by amateur scientist Renato Bandera in the summer of 2014 and donated to the Paleoanthropological Museum of Po in San Daniele Po, Italy. The gray-brown fossil was the slender right shinbone of a leopard, and was found along the right bank of the Po River in northern Italy, near the harbor entrance of the city of Cremona.

The region where this bone was discovered is well-known for its fossils. Other bones from this site have suggested that the area was once home to straight-tusked elephants, steppe bison, woolly mammoths, giant deer, rhinos and elk. However, fossils of carnivores such as bears, wolves, hyenas, foxes — and now, leopards — are very rare. [...] livescience.com


Actualización: Neandertales y leopardos convivieron en el valle del Po 
El hallazgo fortuito de una tibia de leopardo revela su presencia en Italia hace unos 180.000 años 

¿Qué hacía un leopardo por la llanura del Po hace 180.000 años? Probablemente encontrarse como pez en el agua. Este felino, igual que en la actualidad, es capaz de adaptarse a un amplio rango de hábitats, y el hallazgo fortuito de una tibia en las cercanías de la ciudad italiana de Cremona nos permite saber que neandertales y leopardos ocuparon al mismo tiempo estos espacios, aunque por ahora no se hayan podido documentar eventuales interacciones...