2.5 million-year-old saber-toothed cat fossil identified in Turkish museum

A fossil kept in a museum in southwestern Türkiye for decades has been identified as the remains of a saber-toothed cat that lived approximately 2.5 million years ago, researchers said.

The fossil, discovered near Yakaköy village in 1989 and preserved at the Burdur Natural History Museum, belongs to Homotherium latidens, an extinct species of large predatory cat.

A research team led by Alper Yener Yavuz, an associate professor of anthropology at Burdur Mehmet Akif Ersoy University, began examining the fossil in 2023.

Geological and anthropological analyses revealed that the specimen, which has a largely intact jaw, is the most complete saber-toothed cat fossil identified in Anatolia, the Asian part of modern-day Türkiye, Yavuz told Anadolu.

The researchers dated the fossil to approximately 2.5 million years ago using geological and faunal dating methods.

The animal stood about 1.2 meters (4 feet) tall at the shoulder and measured roughly 2 meters (6.6 feet) from head to tail, making it slightly smaller than a modern lion but larger than a jaguar, Yavuz said.

Unlike ambush predators, the species was adapted for pursuing prey, with a wider nasal cavity that allowed it to take in oxygen more efficiently while running, he explained.

"Including our study, only four specimens of this kind are known in Türkiye so far," Yavuz said.

Researchers now plan further field surveys in Burdur and neighboring Isparta province to uncover more evidence of the region's prehistoric past.