File / 25 · Wrong name / cold river

The Arctic cheetah was a puma that went fishing

Surreal natural-history room opening onto an Arctic river where a puma-like extinct cat watches fish beneath the ice. — Original Nogical illustration · Interpretive reconstruction, not a scientific plate

Ancient nuclear DNA confirms that Miracinonyx trumani was a sister species of the modern puma, not a true cheetah; its similar build was convergent evolution. Stable-isotope evidence indicates that northern populations likely specialized in anadromous fish such as salmon — a strong inference, not an eyewitness account.

Next in the drawer →The seven-foot man who spent centuries face-down in a road