''Panthera balamoides'' was described as an extinct species of

big cat The term "big cat" is typically used to refer to any of the five living members of the genus '' Panthera'', namely the tiger, lion, jaguar, leopard, and snow leopard. Despite enormous differences in size, various cat species are quite similar ...

in the genus ''

Panthera ''Panthera'' is a genus within the family (biology), family Felidae that was named and described by Lorenz Oken in 1816 who placed all the spotted cats in this group. Reginald Innes Pocock revised the classification of this genus in 1916 as co ...

'' that lived in the Yucatan Peninsula during the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

. The initial description suggested it to be a type of a climbing cat. The fossil was found associated to 13,400 year old human remains and it was found by underwater cave researcher Jerónimo Avilés, a local scientist in 2011.

Description

''Panthera balamoides'' was described based on the distal third of a right

humerus The humerus (; ) is a long bone in the arm that runs from the shoulder to the elbow. It connects the scapula and the two bones of the lower arm, the radius and ulna, and consists of three sections. The humeral upper extremity consists of a roun ...

from the submerged El Pit

cenote A cenote ( or ; ) is a natural pit, or sinkhole, resulting from the collapse of limestone bedrock that exposes groundwater. The regional term is specifically associated with the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico, where cenotes were commonly used for ...

near

Tulum Tulum (, yua, Tulu'um) is the site of a pre-Columbian Mayan walled city which served as a major port for Coba, in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. The ruins are situated on cliffs along the east coast of the Yucatán Peninsula on the Caribb ...

Quintana Roo Quintana Roo ( , ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Quintana Roo ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Quintana Roo), is one of the 31 states which, with Mexico City, constitute the 32 federal entities of Mexico. It is divided into 11 mu ...

, Mexico. However, a 2019 study on Yucatan carnivorans suggested that the ''Panthera balamoides'' holotype may actually be misidentified remains of ''

Arctotherium ''Arctotherium'' ("''bear beast''") is an extinct genus of the Pleistocene short-faced bears endemic to Central and South America. ''Arctotherium'' migrated from North America to South America during the Great American Interchange, following the f ...

'' (a tremarctine bear), whose remains have also been found in Yucatan. If so, this would explain the unusual robustness of the bone and render ''Panthera balamoides'' an invalid species. Another study on jaguar fossils also considered ''P. balamoides'' to be an ursid.

References

balamoides balamoides Pleistocene Mexico Fossils of Mexico Pleistocene extinctions Fossil taxa described in 2019 {{paleo-carnivora-stub