''Panthera'' is a
genus within the
family Felidae
Felidae () is the family of mammals in the order Carnivora colloquially referred to as cats, and constitutes a clade. A member of this family is also called a felid (). The term "cat" refers both to felids in general and specifically to the ...
, 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
The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus '' Panthera'' native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the th ...
,
leopard
The leopard (''Panthera pardus'') is one of the five extant species in the genus '' Panthera'', a member of the cat family, Felidae. It occurs in a wide range in sub-Saharan Africa, in some parts of Western and Central Asia, Southern Russia, a ...
,
lion
The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large Felidae, cat of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; short, rounded head; round ears; and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphi ...
,
snow leopard and
tiger, as well as a number of extinct species.
Etymology
The word ''panther'' derives from
classical Latin ''panthēra'', itself from the
ancient Greek ''pánthēr'' (
πάνθηρ).
Characteristics
In ''Panthera'' species, the dorsal profile of the
skull is flattish or evenly convex. The frontal inter
orbital area is not noticeably elevated, and the area behind the elevation is less steeply sloped. The basic
cranial axis is nearly horizontal. The inner chamber of the
bullae 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
The hyoid bone (lingual bone or tongue-bone) () is a horseshoe-shaped bone situated in the anterior midline of the neck between the chin and the thyroid cartilage. At rest, it lies between the base of the mandible and the third cervical vertebr ...
and a specially adapted
larynx
The larynx (), commonly called the voice box, is an organ in the top of the neck involved in breathing, producing sound and protecting the trachea against food aspiration. The opening of larynx into pharynx known as the laryngeal inlet is about ...
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.
Evolution
The geographic origin of the ''Panthera'' is most likely northern
Central Asia. ''
Panthera blytheae
''Panthera blytheae'' is an extinct species of the genus '' Panthera'' that is thought to have existed during the late Messinian to early Zanclean ages approximately 5.95–4.1 million years ago. It is currently the oldest known ''Panthera'' sp ...
'', possibly the oldest known ''Panthera'' species, is similar in skull features to the snow leopard,
[ though its taxonomic placement has been disputed by other researchers who suggest that the species likely belongs to a different genus.] The tiger, snow leopard, and clouded leopard
The clouded leopard (''Neofelis nebulosa''), also called the mainland clouded leopard, is a wild cat inhabiting dense forests from the foothills of the Himalayas through mainland Southeast Asia into South China. In the early 19th century, a cl ...
genetic lineages dispersed in Southeast Asia during the Miocene.
Genetic studies indicate that the pantherine cats diverged from the subfamily Felinae between six and ten million years ago.
The genus ''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 ''Neofelis' ...
'' is sister 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 nuclear genomes suggest the following relationships of living ''Panthera'' species:
The extinct species '' Panthera gombaszoegensis'', 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 .
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
Reginald Innes Pocock F.R.S. (4 March 1863 – 9 August 1947) was a British zoologist.
Pocock was born in Clifton, Bristol, the fourth son of Rev. Nicholas Pocock and Edith Prichard. He began showing interest in natural history at St. Edward ...
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
Reginald Innes Pocock F.R.S. (4 March 1863 – 9 August 1947) was a British zoologist.
Pocock was born in Clifton, Bristol, the fourth son of Rev. Nicholas Pocock and Edith Prichard. He began showing interest in natural history at St. Edward ...
revised the classification of this genus in 1916 as comprising the tiger (''P. tigris''), lion
The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large Felidae, cat of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; short, rounded head; round ears; and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphi ...
(''P. leo''), jaguar
The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus '' Panthera'' native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the th ...
(''P. onca''), and leopard
The leopard (''Panthera pardus'') is one of the five extant species in the genus '' Panthera'', a member of the cat family, Felidae. It occurs in a wide range in sub-Saharan Africa, in some parts of Western and Central Asia, Southern Russia, a ...
(''P. pardus'') on the basis of common features of their skulls. 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 subspecific 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 sub-Sahara
Sub-Saharan Africa is, geographically, the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lies south of the Sahara. These include West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, and Southern Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the African co ...
n lion populations into ''P. l. leo''.
Results of phylogeographic studies indicate that the Western and Central African lion populations are more closely related to those in India and form a different clade
A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English term, ...
than lion populations in Southern
Southern may refer to:
Businesses
* China Southern Airlines, airline based in Guangzhou, China
* Southern Airways, defunct US airline
* Southern Air, air cargo transportation company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, US
* Southern Airways Express, M ...
and East Africa
East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territories make up Eastern Africa:
Due to the historical ...
; southeastern Ethiopia is an admixture region between North African and East African lion populations.
Black panther
A black panther is the melanistic colour variant of the leopard (''Panthera pardus'') and the jaguar (''Panthera onca''). Black panthers of both species have excess black pigments, but their typical rosettes are also present. They have been d ...
s do not form a distinct species, but are melanistic
The term melanism refers to black pigment and is derived from the gr, μελανός. Melanism is the increased development of the dark-colored pigment melanin in the skin or hair.
Pseudomelanism, also called abundism, is another variant of pi ...
specimens of the genus, most often encountered in the leopard and jaguar.
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:
Extinct species and 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.
Phylogeny
The cladogram below follows Mazák, Christiansen and Kitchener (2011).
In 2018, results of a phylogenetic study on living and fossil cats were published. This study was based on the morphological diversity of the mandibles of saber-toothed cats, their speciation
Speciation is the evolutionary process by which populations evolve to become distinct species. The biologist Orator F. Cook coined the term in 1906 for cladogenesis, the splitting of lineages, as opposed to anagenesis, phyletic evolution within ...
and extinction rate
Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...
s. The generated cladogram indicates a different relation of the ''Panthera'' species, as shown below:
See also
* ''Panthera'' hybrid
* Panther (legendary creature)
References
Further reading
*
External links
*
*
{{Authority control
Mammal genera
Extant Miocene first appearances
Taxa named by Lorenz Oken
Taxa described in 1816