Panthera

 ( Carnivoran Genera ) 

Panthera is a genus within the family Felidae, and one of two extant genera in the subfamily Pantherinae. It contains the largest living members of the cat family. There are five living species: the jaguar, leopard, lion, snow leopard and tiger. Numerous extinct species are also named, including the Panthera spelaea and American lion.

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Etymology The word derives from Classical Latin , itself from the Ancient Greek ().

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Characteristics In Panthera species, the dorsal profile of the skull is flattish or evenly convex. The frontal interorbital area is not noticeably elevated, and the area behind the elevation is less steeply sloped. The basic Cranial cavity axis is nearly horizontal. The inner chamber of the Auditory bulla is large, the outer small. The partition between them is close to the external auditory meatus. The convexly rounded chin is sloping. All Panthera species have an incompletely ossified hyoid bone and a specially adapted larynx with large vocal folds covered in a fibro-elastic pad; these characteristics enable them to roar. Only the snow leopard cannot roar, as it has shorter vocal folds of that provide a lower resistance to airflow; it was therefore proposed to be retained in the genus Uncia. Panthera species can prusten, which is a short, soft, snorting sound; it is used during contact between friendly individuals. The roar is an especially loud call with a distinctive pattern that depends on the species.

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Evolution The geographic origin of the genus Panthera is uncertain, though the earliest known definitive species Panthera principialis is from Tanzania. P. blytheae from northern Central Asia, originally described as the oldest known Panthera species, is suggested to be similar in skull features to the snow leopard, but subsequent studies have since agreed that it is not a member of or a related species of the snow leopard lineage and that it belongs to a different genus Palaeopanthera. The tiger, snow leopard, and clouded leopard likely dispersed in Southeast Asia during the Late Miocene. Genetic studies indicate that the Pantherinae diverged from the subfamily Felinae between six and ten million years ago. The genus Neofelis is sister group to Panthera. The clouded leopard appears to have diverged about . Panthera diverged from other cat species about and then evolved into the species tiger about , snow leopard about and leopard about . Mitochondrial sequence data from fossils suggest that the American lion ( P. atrox) is a sister lineage to Panthera spelaea (the Eurasian cave or steppe lion) that diverged about , and that both P. atrox and P. spelaea are most closely related to lions among living Panthera species. The snow leopard is nested within Panthera and is the sister species of the tiger.

Results of a 2016 study based on analysis of biparental suggest the following relationships of living Panthera species:

The extinct species Panthera gombaszogensis, was probably closely related to the modern jaguar. The first fossil remains were excavated in Olivola, in Italy, and date to . Fossil remains found in South Africa that appear to belong within the Panthera lineage date to about .

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Classification

Panthera was named and described by Lorenz Oken in 1816 who placed all the spotted cats in this group. During the 19th and 20th centuries, various explorers and staff of natural history museums suggested numerous subspecies, or at times called "races", for all Panthera species. The taxonomist Reginald Innes Pocock reviewed skins and skulls in the zoological collection of the Natural History Museum, London, and grouped subspecies described, thus shortening the lists considerably. Reginald Innes Pocock revised the classification of this genus in 1916 as comprising the tiger ( P. tigris), lion ( P. leo), jaguar ( P. onca), and leopard ( P. pardus) on the basis of common features of their . Since the mid-1980s, several Panthera species became subjects of genetic research, mostly using blood samples of captive individuals. Study results indicate that many of the lion and leopard subspecies are questionable because of insufficient genetic distinction between them. Subsequently, it was proposed to group all African leopard populations to P. p. pardus and retain eight scientific names for Asian leopard populations. Results of genetic analysis indicate that the snow leopard (formerly Uncia uncia) also belongs to the genus Panthera ( P. uncia), a classification that was accepted by IUCN Red List assessors in 2008.

Based on genetic research, it was suggested to group all living lion populations into P. l. leo. Results of phylogeographic studies indicate that the West Africa and lion populations are more closely related to those in India and form a different clade than lion populations in Southern Africa and East Africa; southeastern Ethiopia is an admixture region between North African and East African lion populations.

do not form a distinct species, but are Melanism specimens of the genus, most often encountered in the leopard and jaguar.

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Contemporary species

The following list of the genus Panthera is based on the taxonomic assessment in Mammal Species of the World and reflects the taxonomy revised in 2017 by the Cat Classification Task Force of the Cat Specialist Group:

Lion P. leo	P. l. leo including: †Barbary lion P. l. leo sensu stricto Asiatic lion P. l. melanochaita including: †Cape lion P. l. melanochaita sensu stricto
Jaguar P. onca	Monotypic
Leopard P. pardus	African leopard P. p. pardus Indian leopard P. p. fusca Javan leopard P. p. melas Arabian leopard P. p. nimr P. p. tulliana Amur leopard P. p. orientalis Indochinese leopard P. p. delacouri Sri Lankan leopard P. p. kotiya
Tiger P. tigris	P. t. tigris including: Bengal tiger P. t. tigris sensu stricto †Caspian tiger Siberian tiger South China tiger Indochinese tiger Malayan tiger Sunda Island tiger P. t. sondaica including †Javan tiger P. t. sondaica sensu stricto Sumatran tiger †Bali tiger
Snow leopard P. uncia	Monotypic taxon

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Extinct species and subspecies

American lion	North America, 0.13 to 0.013 MYA, with dubious remains in South America.	Commonly known as the American lion , P. atrox is thought to have descended from a basal P. spelaea cave lion population isolated south of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet, and then established a mitochondrial Sister group circa 200,000 BP. It was sometimes considered a subspecies either under the nomenclature of P. leo or P. spelaea. One of the largest Panthera species. Became extinct around 13,000-12,000 years ago.
Panthera balamoides	Mexico, ~0.13 MYA	Dubious, other authors suggest that the remains are actually of the extinct bear Arctotherium instead.
Panthera fossilis	Europe and Asia, 0.68 to 0.25 MYA	Extinct species of lion known from the Middle Pleistocene of Europe and Asia. One of the largest known species of Panthera. Considered to be the ancestor of P. spelaea.
Panthera gombaszogensis	Europe, possibly Asia and Africa, 2.0 to 0.35 MYA	Ranged across Europe, as well as possibly Asia and Africa from around 2 million to 350,000 years ago. Often suggested to be the ancestor of the living jaguar ( Panthera onca), and sometimes referred to as the "European jaguar". Panthera schreuderi and Panthera toscana are considered junior synonyms of P. gombaszogensis. It is occasionally classified as a subspecies of P. onca.
Panthera palaeosinensis	Northern China, ~3 MYA	Initially thought to be an ancestral tiger species, but several scientists place it close to the base of the genus Panthera At least three recent studies considered Panthera zdanskyi likely to be a synonym of P. palaeosinensis.
Panthera principialis	Tanzania, ~3.7 MYA	Described in 2023.
Panthera shawi	Laetoli site in Tanzania, ~3 MYA	A leopard-like cat
Panthera spelaea	Much of Eurasia, 0.6 to 0.013 MYA	Commonly known as the cave lion or steppe lion. Originally spelaea was classified as a subspecies of the extant lion P. leo. Results of recent genetic studies indicate that it belongs to a distinct species, namely P. spelaea that is most closely related to the modern lion among living Panthera species. Other genetic results indicate that P. fossilis also warrants status as a species. It became extinct around 14,500-14,000 years ago.
Panthera youngi	China, Japan, ~0.35 MYA
Panthera zdanskyi	Gansu province of northwestern China, 2.55 to 2.16 MYA	It was initially considered to be a close relative of the tiger. But it is possibly synonymous with P. palaeosinensis.
Panthera leo sinhaleyus	Sri Lanka	This lion subspecies was described on the basis of two teeth.
Panthera onca augusta	North America	May have lived in temperate forests across North America
Panthera onca mesembrina	South America	May have lived in grasslands in South America, unlike the modern jaguar
Panthera pardus spelaea	Europe	Closely related to Asiatic leopard subspecies,
Panthera tigris acutidens	Much of Asia	Not closely related to modern tiger subspecies
Panthera tigris soloensis	Java, Indonesia	Not closely related to modern tiger subspecies
Panthera tigris trinilensis	Java, Indonesia	Not closely related to modern tiger subspecies

Other, now invalid, species have also been described, such as Panthera crassidens from South Africa, which was later found to be based on a mixture of leopard and cheetah fossils. A " Panthera dhokpathanensis" was briefly referenced in 1986 in a report on apparent new carnivorans from the Dhok Patha region in the Siwaliks, but as no description was provided this name is a nomen nudum.

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Phylogeny

2018, results of a phylogenetic study on living and fossil cats were published. This study was based on the morphological diversity of the of saber-toothed cats, their speciation and .

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See also

• Panthera hybrid
• Panther (legendary creature)

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Notes

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Further reading

• (1997). 9780231102285, Columbia University Press. . ISBN 9780231102285

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External links

Categories: Carnivoran Genera, Extant Miocene First Appearances, Taxa Named By Lorenz Oken, Taxa Described In 1816

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