Where can you find pictures of Cheetah fossils?

Answer 1

The most widely-held view is that the Cheetah evolved in North America. Only a mutual evolutionary race would be likely to create the two fastest animals: the Cheetah and the Pronghorn.

However, there were once several quite distinct different types of Cheetah. The North American Cheetah was meant to be far more bulkily built to allow it to take down larger prey.

A Cheetah ancestry website clearly states that many scientists believe that Cheetahs belong to Africa. But studies show that Cheetahs actually originated in North America as Mirocinonyx - considered to be the common ancestors of Cheetahs and Pumas.'

Having said that, all Cheetah went through a bottleneck 10,000 years ago- which meant that all Cheetah are very closely related (many sources say as closely as identical twins).

The Cheetah is the most ancient of all the members of the cat family, originating approximately 4 million years ago. The oldest fossils suggest its earliest habitat to be in North America (the areas of Texas, Nevada, and Wyoming). Until 10,000 years ago (the end of the last Ice Age), Acinonyx jubatus was common throughout Asia, Africa, Europe and North America. Due to the devastating climatic changes, vast numbers of mammals (including the Cheetah) disappeared or became reduced to very small populations. Virtually all the Cheetah in North America and Europe perished, while most of those in Asia and Africa were drastically reduced. The resultant genetic "bottleneck" is responsible for today's surviving cheetahs being as genetically alike as identical twins. Some scientists have even theorized that the surviving African cheetahs may all come from one female that managed to survive the climatic changes.

Cheetahs are thought to have originated in Africa during the Miocene epoch (26 million to 7.5 million years ago), migrating to Asia shortly thereafter. This would have been during the same time period that Gazelles evolved. True Cheetahs appeared in the form of Acinonyx pardinensis during the Pliocene epoch (7.5 to 3.75 million years ago) but were much larger (to 200 lb.) than living cheetahs. Their remains have been found in Europe, India and China. A more recent but slightly smaller Cheetah, Acinonyx intermedius, evolved during the mid-Pleistocene period (3.8 to 1.9 million years ago) and extended its range into China. Living Cheetahs, Acinonyx jubatus, became extinct in eastern Asia at the end of the Ice Age, giving way to other felid predators. In Africa, the earliest Cheetah fossil is from Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania and dates to the lower Pleistocene epoch.

During the late Pleistocene epoch of North America, 100,000 years ago, two species of Cheetah, Miracinonyx studeri and Miracinonyx trumani, existed. Both shared similar morphological features with living Cheetahs, including facial shortening and nasal expansion in order to facilitate the enlargement of respiratory passages to support oxygen uptake and distribution while running. Their presence on the American prairies is considered the primary reason living Pronghorn "antelope" are so fast, there being no living predator that can match them in speed. Yet another extinct Cheetah, Miracinonyx inexpectatus, from the early Pleistocene of North America (1 to 1.5 millions years BP) is thought to be closely related to the Puma. Its body proportions are intermediate between those of a Puma and those of living Cheetahs, Acinonyx. The lower limbs of this cat were not as elongated and the claws were fully retractable. Based on skeletal features, Miracinonyx inexpectatus is thought to have been faster- running than the Puma but stronger and better equipped for climbing than Acinonyx.

The link listed as 'Cheetah History' (below) shows one depiction.

This and the other link listed should help you get started in the right direction.