PANTHERA ONCA REMAINS AND FELID TRACKS FROM LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN CAVE, TENNESSEE

While a rare sight anywhere in the United States today, jaguar (Panthera onca) remains from the Quaternary are well known throughout the country. These remains are particularly common in the southeastern USA in Florida and eastern Tennessee. Panthera onca has been previously reported from Lookout Mountain Cave, TN but material has not been described. This has changed thanks to a donation of previously excavated material to the Gray Fossil Site and Museum by Ruby Falls, a cave-based tourism company that owns Lookout Mountain Cave and the more famous Ruby Falls Cave. This donated material includes remains of several extant taxa including black bear, spotted skunk, and deer with P. onca being the only regionally extinct taxon identified from this collection. Panthera onca is represented by a single humerus. While the element was fragmented when found, the humerus is nearly complete. Measurements for the humerus are within the variation of fossil P. onca which are often 15%-20% larger on average than living ones. This humerus is the largest found in Tennessee so far but is still smaller than the largest fossil P. onca from North America. In addition to this humerus, felid tracks are known from further back in the cave in a section known as “Kitty City.” A plaster cast of a track from the cave was also part of the donation. Qualitative and quantitative means of distinguishing jaguar tracks from that of puma provide mixed results to the identity of these tracks and thus are referred here as simply felid tracks. Kitty City represents the third reported potential jaguar tracks found in Tennessee, making it the state with the most cat trackways from the Pleistocene.