Yukon big cats ate fish during the Ice Age

Slender, agile cheetahs that roamed the Yukon 30,000 years ago were not technically cheetahs at all, but relatives of the puma that adapted to mostly eat fish instead of antelopes in a harsh northern climate, new research shows. A study published in the journal Current Biology analyzed fossils found in the Yukon and Wyoming in the United States belonging to Miracinonyx trumani, also known as the “American cheetah.” With their gracefully slim bodies and long legs, the now-extinct cats appeared to resemble African cheetahs. But the researchers found the cats were actually closer relatives of the puma, having diverged from the puma lineage around 2.6 million years ago as growing grasslands and cooling temperatures drove diversification in many North American mammals.