
Sabre-toothed cat fossils discovered in Venezuela
An ancient tar pit exposed when Venezuelan oil workers laid a
pipeline has yielded a rich trove of fossils, including a type of sabre-toothed
cat that paleontologists had never found before in South America.
Scientists say the find holds the promise of many discoveries to come.
The fossils are 1.8 million years old and include skulls and jawbones
of six scimitar-toothed cats - a variety of sabre-toothed cat with
shorter, narrower canine teeth than other species.
Researchers led by Venezuelan paleontologist Ascanio Rincon announced
the discovery, saying in addition to proving the cat once lived here,
the find also should offer a rare window into the environment shortly
after North and South America became connected following an age of
separation. "The deposit could be one of the most important in South
America in the last 60 years," Rincon told the Associated Press.
Other experts agree
"The find is one of the most spectacular and scientifically
interesting discoveries of the last decade," said University of Kansas
professor Larry D. Martin, an expert on sabre-toothed cats who was not
involved in the find. "The genus hadn't been known from South America
before."
The tar pits are larger than two football fields and near the surface
of the soil in the eastern state of Monagas, an oil-rich area.
The state oil company set aside the site for research in 2006 and
contacted Rincon at the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Studies.
After months of digging, he and his team found the prized fossils in
April 2007.
But for the past year, Venezuela's Cultural Heritage Institute has
inexplicably (without explanation) barred researchers from the site,
which Rincon says has left it exposed to sun and rain, and potentially
damaged the fossils.
The Cultural Heritage Institute revoked (retract) Rincon's permit
last year, and has yet to publicly explain why. Rincon said his
institution is negotiating with the agency so that researchers may
return.
Rincon first spoke of the discovery at a symposium on
scimitar-toothed cats in Pocatello, Idaho, in May.
Rincon and other researchers say the find suggests scimitar-toothed
cats - of the genus Homotherium - crossed from North America to South
America shortly after the continents grew together and became linked in
modern-day Panama following a 65-million-year separation, a "moment of
great exchange" between the continents.
Another expert, Argentine paleontologist Francisco Prevosti, called
the Venezuelan discovery of "utmost importance for South American
paleontology."
Prevosti and other experts say the now-extinct scimitar-toothed cat
was previously confirmed to have inhabited Africa, Europe, Asia and
North America - but not South America.
- AP
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