PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Vol. 101 W«.hington: 1951 No. 3287 



NEW FINDS OF PLEISTOCENE JAGUAR SKELETONS 

 FROM TENNESSEE CAVES 



By Edward McCrady, H. T. Kirby-Smith, and Harvey Templeton 



Only very recently has Pleistocene jaguar material been recognized 

 in North America, and thus far extremely few parts have been de- 

 scribed in the literature. Aside from Pcmthera atrox^ which is now 

 considered a closely related species, only about 12 or possibly 14 frag- 

 ments that can be assigned to very close relatives of the modem 

 Panthera cmca have been mentioned in print. Probably the most im- 

 portant feature of the two finds here recorded is the fact that together 

 they include nearly every bone in the body. Accordingly, it should 

 now be possible for the first time to determine fairly definitely the 

 relationships of the extinct form. 



We are indebted to the Carnegie Foundation and to the University 

 of the South for grants that made this study possible. 



OCCURRENCE OF THE NEW MATERIAL 



This paper is concerned with two skeletons found in caves in the St. 

 Louis limestone of the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee. The first 

 was discovered by the three of us in 1944 in Little Salt River Cave in 

 Franklin County, near the Tennessee-Alabama border. This is an 

 active cave with a stream running through the main passage and 

 issuing on the valley floor. The skeleton was found approximately 

 one-half mile from the entrance in an upper passage accessible only 

 by means of a short vertical climb of some 15 feet. The passage is 

 low (about 30 inches high) and broad (15 to 30 feet), and is richly 

 ornamented with very remarkable helictites. At what originally ap- 

 peared to be its end, the passage is crossed by a screen of stalactite 



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