Of all the felines, big cats were the first to split off into their own group from the common ancestor, so they are vital to understanding all cat evolution.

Previously, the oldest fossil evidence came from Africa and put the big cats at 3.8 million years old. But modern geographical patterns and molecular data—DNA comparisons of ancient fossils with modern bones—suggested Asian origins going back at least six million years.

Now scientists finally have the bones to back up that narrative.

The fossil discovery of a cat named Panthera blytheae, reported online today in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, adds about two million years to the time when the animals branched out to become "big cats"—to the Late