These features are not present in the fossil cheetah A. pardinensis, that went extinct about 126,000 years ago, demonstrating that the unique and highly specialized inner ear of the sole living species of cheetah likely evolved extremely recently, possibly later than the middle Pleistocene. The cheetah Acinonyx jubatus is a large, anatomically-specialized, cursorial felid carnivoran, and the fastest living land mammal.
