Panthera

This page is about a genus that contains extinct and extant species; species marked with † are extinct.

## Panthera

Left to right: tiger, lion, jaguar, leopard, snow leopard; all extant species of Panthera.

## Statistics

### Diet

Carnivorous

*Panthera* is a genus of felid that lived in the Americas, Europe and Asia since the Late Miocene.

## History

Lorenz Oken (1816) assigned all spotted cats to Panthera, but Reginald Innes Pocock (1916) revised all species based on common cranial traits, splitting all (but the modern extant species but the snow leopard) into another classification. Genetic analysis placed the snow leopard into *Panthera* later. *P. crassidens* was once thought to be a distinct, extinct South African species. However, analysis proved the material assigned was a chimeric mix of jaguar and leopard. Remains from Alaska were once believed to be a unique population of tigers, but turned out to be of a steppe lion[*citation needed*]. A cryptozoological morph of South China tiger is the Maltese tiger, sighted in Fuijan Province (China, 1910) and Korea. It is allegedly slate blue with grey stripes, though other colour morphs (red, purple, yellow, etc.) are rumoured, and extinct (in some fashion)[*citation needed*].

## Classification

A population of lion is known from a single skull 460 millimeters long found in Natodomeri, Kenya, often correlated with the Member I of the Omo Kibish Formation, between 195 and 205 ka. It is very large, comparable to the largest cave lions and is much larger than any living or fossil lion. Known as the Natodomeri lion, It may have been climate-driven to become so large, previously being misidentified as a new subspecies. Mazák, Christiansen and Kitchener (2011) find:

A 2018 study on extinct and extant cats compared morphology and diversity in *Smilodon*, speciation and extinction rates generates the following:

### Evolution

   *Panthera* likely originated in northern Central Asia. During the Miocene, the tiger, snow leopard and clouded leopard lineages dispersed in Southeast Asia. Genetic studies show pantherines diverged from felids ~6-101 million years ago, with *Neofelis* being sister. Around 8.66 million years ago, the clouded leopard appears to diverge, with other *Panthera* diverging ~11.3 million years ago, evolving into other species 6.55 million years ago. The snow leopard evolved ~4.63 million years ago and the leopard ~4.35 million years ago. Mitochondrial sequence suggests the American lion was the sister to *Panthera spelaea*, and diverged ~0.34 million years ago. The snow leopard is nestled in *Panthera*, classed as the sister to the tiger.

## Species

* *P. leo* (lion)
	+ †*P. l. leo* (Barbary lion)
	+ *P. l. persica* (Asiatic lion)
	+ *P. l. melanochaita*
		- †Cape lion
	+ †Natodomeri lion
	+ †*P. l. fossilis*
	+ †*P. l. sinhaleyus* (Ceylonese lion)
* *P. onca* (jaguar)
	+ †*P. o. augusta* (Pleistocene jaguar)
	+ †*P. o. mesembrina*
* *P. pardus* (leopard)
	+ *P. p. pardus* (African leopard)
	+ *P. p. fusca* (Indian leopard)
	+ *P. p. melas* (Javan leopard)
	+ *P. p. nimr* (Arabian leopard)
	+ *P. p. tulliana*
	+ *P. p. orientalis* (Amur leopard)
	+ *P. p. delacouri* (Indochinese leopard)
	+ *P. p. kotiya* (Sri Lanken leopard)
	+ †*P. p. spelaea* (European Ice Age leopard)
* *P. tigris* (tiger)
	+ *P. t. tigris*
		- Bengal tiger
		- †Caspian tiger
		- Siberian tiger
		- South China tiger
		- Indochinese tiger
		- Malayan tiger
	+ *P. t. sondaica*
		- †Javan tiger
		- Sumatran tiger
		- †Bali tiger
	+ †*P. t. acutidens* (Wanhsien tiger)
	+ †*P. t. soloensis* (Ngandong tiger)
	+ †*P. t. trinilensis* (Trinil tiger)
* *P. uncia* (snow leopard)
* †*P. palaeosinensis*
* †*P. zdanskyi* (Longdan tiger)
* †*P. youngi*
* †*P. atrox* (American lion)
* †*P. balamoides*
* †*P. gombaszoegensis* (European jaguar)
* †*P. spelaea* (stepped lion)
* †*P. shawi*

### Reassigned Species

* *P. l. persica* (=Asiatic lion)
* *P. p. ciscaucasica* (=P. p. tulliana)
* *P. p. saxicolor* (=P. p. tulliana)
* *P. p. japonensis* (=P. p. orientalis)
* †*P. t. virgata*
* *P. t. altaica* (=Siberian tiger)
* *P. t. amoyensis* (=South China tiger)
* *P. t. corbetti* (=Indochinese tiger)
* *P. t. jacksoni* (=Malayan tiger)
* *P. t. sumatrae* (=Sumatran tiger)
* †*P. t. balica*
* †*P. schreuderi*
* †*P. toscana*
* †*P. blytheae*
* †*P. pamiri*

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panthera
2. ↑ Caldwell, H. R (1924). *Blue Tiger*. Abingdon Press.
3. ↑ https://www.gutenberg.org/files/12296/12296-h/12296-h.htm
4. ↑ https://prehistoric-fauna.com/Natodomeri-lion