A case of mistaken identity: a reassessment of puma ( Puma concolor ) and the North American cheetah-like cat ( Miracinonyx trumani ) occurrences in the fossil record of Upper Pleistocene North America

The North American cheetah-like cat (Miracinonyx trumani) is a Late Pleistocene felid currently known from a handful of sites in North America. Its close relative, the mountain lion (Puma concolor), is much more widespread in the fossil record. However, owing to their close morphological similarity and the relatively recent description of M. trumani compared to many historical fossil accounts of P. concolor, it is likely that some latter specimens are misattributed. In this study, we examined fossil material attributed to P. concolor, which, based on original descriptions, may instead represent M. trumani specimens. We took linear measurements of cranial, dental, and postcranial material of known M. trumani and P. concolor specimens and compared them with these putative specimens of uncertain affinity. In order to differentiate between species, we performed discriminant function analyses (DFA) on ln transformed measurements. We also performed principal component analyses (PCA) in order to determine which characters drive variation between species. We found that postcranial material, particularly distal limb elements, reliably separate M. trumani from P. concolor. Cranial material fared worse overall at statistically distinguishing the species, though several cranial and dental characters could significantly separate the two. From the uncertain material we identified numerous previously unrecognized M. trumani specimens from three new localities in the U.S.A. and one in Mexico. This study greatly expands the known occurrences of M. trumani in North America and hints that many additional misidentified specimens may still be lurking in museum collections.