''Palaeopanthera'' () is an extinct

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

of pantherine

felid Felidae ( ) is the Family (biology), family of mammals in the Order (biology), order Carnivora colloquially referred to as cats. A member of this family is also called a felid ( ). The 41 extant taxon, extant Felidae species exhibit the gre ...

which lived during the

Late Miocene The Late Miocene (also known as Upper Miocene) is a sub-epoch of the Miocene epoch (geology), Epoch made up of two faunal stage, stages. The Tortonian and Messinian stages comprise the Late Miocene sub-epoch, which lasted from 11.63 Ma (million ye ...

Early Pliocene Early may refer to: Places in the United States * Early, Iowa, a city * Early, Texas, a city * Early Branch, a stream in Missouri * Early County, Georgia * Fort Early, Georgia, an early 19th century fort Music * Early B, stage name of Jamaican d ...

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

(

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

and

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

). It contains two species, ''P. blytheae'' and ''P. pamiri'', which were initially suggested as members of the genera ''

Panthera ''Panthera'' is a genus within the family (biology), 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, ...

'' and ''

Felis ''Felis'' is a genus of small and medium-sized cat species native to most of Africa and south of 60° latitude in Europe and Asia to Indochina. The genus includes the domestic cat. The smallest of the seven ''Felis'' species is the black-footed ...

'' respectively, but subsequent studies have placed both species to be separate from their original generic assignment.

Discovery and naming

Known from a partial skull and isolated teeth, the

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

s of ''P. blytheae'' were first excavated in August 2010 in the Zanda Basin located in the

Ngari Prefecture Ngari Prefecture () or Ali Prefecture ( zh, s=阿里地区 , t=阿里地區 , p=Ālǐ Dìqū) is a prefecture of China's Tibet Autonomous Region covering Western Tibet, whose traditional name is Ngari Khorsum. Its administrative centre and large ...

on the

Tibetan Plateau The Tibetan Plateau, also known as the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau or Qingzang Plateau, is a vast elevated plateau located at the intersection of Central Asia, Central, South Asia, South, and East Asia. Geographically, it is located to the north of H ...

, and were subsequently described and named in 2014. The type specimen, IVPP V18788.1, is dated to the

, approximately . While some material from the latest Miocene has been initially referred to this species, other researchers argued that the putative Late Miocene material is undiagnostic at genus level and that it could belong to other felids, probably the

machairodontine Machairodontinae (from Ancient Greek μάχαιρα ''machaira,'' a type of Ancient Greek sword and ὀδόντος ''odontos'' meaning tooth) is an extinct subfamily of carnivoran mammals of the cat family Felidae, representing the earliest d ...

s. First assigned to the genus ''Panthera'', the specific name ''blytheae'' was created in honor of the daughter of Paul Haaga and Heather Haaga, who supported the

Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the laws, elements and phenomena of the physical world, including life. Although humans are par ...

. A partial first upper right molar (IVPP V 19064) identified as cf. ''P. blytheae'' was discovered from the Yuzhu Peak of

Kunlun Mountains The Kunlun Mountains constitute one of the longest mountain chains in Asia, extending for more than . In the broadest sense, the chain forms the northern edge of the Tibetan Plateau south of the Tarim Basin. Located in Western China, the Kun ...

. In 2023, Hemmer erected a new genus ''Palaeopanthera'', meaning ancient ''Panthera'', with ''P. blytheae'' as the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

. The second species ''P. pamiri'' was first described in 1965 as a species of ''

'' based on remains found in the

(

Vallesian The Vallesian age is a period of geologic time (11.6–9.0 Ma) within the Miocene used more specifically with European Land Mammal Ages. It precedes the Turolian age and follows the Astaracian age. The so-called Vallesian Crisis resulted in th ...

) deposits of Yassiören,

. This species has a complicated taxonomic history, with subsequent studies reassigning it as a species of separate genera: ''

Metailurus ''Metailurus'' is a genus of saber-toothed cat in the family Felidae, and belonging to the tribe Metailurini, which occurred in North America, Eurasia and Africa from the Miocene to the Middle Pleistocene The Chibanian, more widely known a ...

'' in 1978, ''

Miopanthera ''Miopanthera'' is an extinct genus of '' Pseudaelurus''-grade felids. Taxonomy The genus ''Miopanthera'' was first proposed in 1938 by Kretzoi for the species ''Pseudaelurus lorteti''. ''P. lorteti'' had previously been described as such in 189 ...

'' in 2017 and ''Palaeopanthera'' in 2023.

Description

Although only one skull of ''Panthera blytheae'' has been discovered, its describers suggested that the species has a number of features common in other ''Panthera'' species, including a "frontoparietal suture located at the postorbital constriction", and an "absence of an anterior bulge overhanging the

infraorbital canal The infraorbital canal is a canal found at the base of the orbit that opens on to the maxilla. It is continuous with the infraorbital groove and opens onto the maxilla at the infraorbital foramen. The infraorbital nerve and infraorbital artery t ...

". Its size is thought to be on par with that of the

clouded leopard The clouded leopard (''Neofelis nebulosa''), also called mainland clouded leopard, is a wild cat inhabiting dense forests from the foothills of the Himalayas through Northeast India and Bhutan to mainland Southeast Asia into South China. It w ...

. It is about 10% smaller than the

snow leopard The snow leopard (''Panthera uncia'') is a species of large cat in the genus ''Panthera'' of the family Felidae. The species is native to the mountain ranges of Central and South Asia. It is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List because ...

. However, this is purely based on the relative sizes of the cranium, so this may be slightly inaccurate.

Classification

While ''P. blytheae'' was initially suggested to be related to the modern

, various researchers since 2017 have questioned the classification of the poorly preserved ''P. blytheae'' to the genus ''Panthera'' based on limited comparisons to other species including the snow leopard, and as lacking features that comply with ''Panthera'' features. In 2023, Hemmer proposed that ''P. blytheae'' and ''"

" pamiri'' are distantly related to extant big cats and instead more closely related to ''

Neofelis ''Neofelis'' is a genus comprising two extant cat species in Southeast Asia: the clouded leopard (''Neofelis nebulosa'') of mainland Asia, and the Sunda clouded leopard (''Neofelis diardi'') of Sumatra and Borneo. The scientific name ''Neofel ...

'', and erected ''Palaeopanthera'' for both species. In the same year, the describers of '' Pachypanthera'' recognized Hemmer's new genus ''Palaeopanthera'' but didn't comment on its generic validity. In their supplementary material of the 2025 study, the describers of the European

paleosubspecies A chronospecies is a species derived from a sequential development pattern that involves continual and uniform changes from an extinct ancestral form on an evolutionary scale. The sequence of alterations eventually produces a population that is p ...

of the modern

(''P. u. lusitana'') also recognized Hemmer's genus and argued that the craniodental morphology (upper third molar, jugal, postorbital and buccal grooves) of ''P. blytheae'' are clearly not present in the genus ''Panthera'' but can be observed in the genus ''

Lynx A lynx ( ; : lynx or lynxes) is any of the four wikt:extant, extant species (the Canada lynx, Iberian lynx, Eurasian lynx and the bobcat) within the medium-sized wild Felidae, cat genus ''Lynx''. The name originated in Middle Engl ...

'', and thus this taxon which requires more material to clarify its taxonomic affinites is not closely related to or a member of the snow leopard lineage. Whether ''P. blytheae'' belongs to the genus ''Panthera'' or not, this species is not thought to be as closely related to the other extant species of ''Panthera'' since its initial description, and is therefore not believed to be the common ancestor of all pantherines. This implies that the divergence of ''Panthera'' from the rest of Felidae was much earlier, with current estimates being approximately 16.4 million years ago. Analysis of the location of ''P. blytheae'' in relation to other ''Panthera'' species indicates that ''Panthera'' arose in Central/Northern Asia or the

Holarctic The Holarctic realm is a biogeographic realm that comprises the majority of habitats found throughout the continents in the Northern Hemisphere. It corresponds to the floristic Boreal Kingdom. It includes both the Nearctic zoogeographical reg ...

region of Asia, with other pantherines migrating to Europe, Africa and the Americas.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15149619 blytheae Miocene felids Pliocene carnivorans Prehistoric animals of China Miocene mammals of Asia Pliocene mammals of Asia Fossil taxa described in 2023 Tortonian first appearances Zanclean extinctions

Discovery and naming

Description

Classification

See also

References