Sabre-toothed cat fossils found

Last Modified: 21 Aug 2008
Source: PA News

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 palaeontologists 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 palaeontologist Ascanio Rincon announced the discovery, saying in addition to proving the cat once lived there, 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.

"The find is one of the most spectacular and scientifically interesting discoveries of the last decade," said University of Kansas professor Larry 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 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 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.

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