Recently, a fossilized skull of a big cat was unearthed in north-west China, which has been identified as the most primitive cheetah ever found. The skull is properly preserved and is between 2.16m and 2.55m years old. However, its location has created doubts regarding the ideas that cheetahs evolved in Americas.

If adhered to one theory, modern cheetahs shared a common ancestor with pumas in the Americas, but the fossil record of the puma goes back only around 400,000 years in the US. Since the present discovery of the skull is much older, it is strong evidence for an evolutionary origin for cheetahs in Asia. .

It is quite well known that cheetahs are the fastest land animal and it uses short bursts of speed in excess of 70mph to capture prey. As of now, these beautiful animals are found exclusively in Africa and are classified by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List of endangered species as vulnerable to extinction. However, there is one sub-species called the Asiatic cheetah that is found in Iran.

It has been suggested by the new find from the Linxia basin in China's Gansu province that Asia was the evolutionary cradle for the fleet felines. The latest discovery of the nearly complete skull is among the oldest cheetah fossils yet found. It should be noted that it is around the same age as a 2.5m year-old related species discovered in Casablanca, Morocco, in 1997.