FEATURELINK: Paleontologists have found fossilized remains of a big cat skull in the remote regions of Tibet.

Paleontologists have found fossilized remains of a big cat skull in the remote regions of Tibet. The discovery supports the idea that big cats such as tigers and lions might have originated in Central Asia and not Africa, as was previously believed.

Researchers have named the extinct species Panthera blytheae. Its skull fragments are about 4.1 to 5.95 million years old, BBC reports.This cat is a sister of living snow leopards - it has a broad forehead and a short face. But it's a little smaller - the size of clouded leopards," said lead author Dr Jack Tseng of the University of Southern California, reports BBC."This ties up a lot of questions we had on how these animals evolved and spread throughout the world.