in 2019 and 2020 i became a huge paleo nerd when i started doing research for Stoneheart's feral fauna.
I've always had a fascination for prehistoric life, but starting to truly digging into the subject introduced me to so many critters i never would've guessed ever existed. Also makes me grateful that no matter how damn nature u scary it be nowadays, at least i didn't share a time epoch or continent with the thylacoleo. Like, imagine an apex predator with incisors instead of fangs.
Anyhow, i was excited for this prompt as i knew i wanted to draw an anthro of some extinct mammal, and after considering some of my super hipster faves like the andrewsarchus, gorgonopsidae, calicotherium, thylacoleo etc, i decided to settle on a species dubbed miracinonyx, or the American Cheetah.
The american cheetah's fossil record is sadly quite lacking, and we really don't much about the genus. However, there is a possibility that their existence left its mark visible even to this day.
Enter: the American Pronghorn.
American Pronghorns are the second fastest land mammal in terms of speed, second only to the African Cheetah. They clearly evolved to outrun pursuit predators, there is only one problem. Modern day america lacks pursuit predators. The pronghorns are simply way faster than they need to be, as neither bears, wolves, mountain lions, coyotes, jaguars, etc etc, hunts down their prey by pursuit.
So, why would they ever need to be this fast? Unless there once existed a speedy pursuit predator, such as the miracinonyx.
But hey, that's just a theory! A paleo theory!
Anyhow, here's a tribal american cheetah hunter, because i think they're neat~
As we have no way of knowing what these animals looked like i tried to make her look like a more long haired and less spotty modern cheetah ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Keywords
female
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spear
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inktober2021
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extinct
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american cheetah
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megafauna
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miracinonyx
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3 years, 1 month ago
24 Oct 2021 17:23 CEST
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