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Veterinary Dictionary:

Panthera

Includes cougar (P. concolor), jaguar (P. onca), jaguarundi (P. jaguarundi), leopard (P. pardus), lion (P. leo), margay (P. tigrina), ocelot (P. pardalis), tiger (P. tigris), Siberian tiger (P. tigris altaica), snow leopard (P. uncia).

 
 
WordNet: Panthera
Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: lions; leopards; snow leopards; jaguars; tigers; cheetahs; saber-toothed tigers
  Synonym: genus Panthera

 
Wikipedia: panthera
For other uses, see Panthera (disambiguation).
Panthera[1]
Lion, Tiger, Jaguar, and Leopard(top to bottom)
Lion, Tiger, Jaguar, and Leopard
(top to bottom)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Felidae
Subfamily: Pantherinae
Genus: Panthera
Oken, 1816
Type species
Felis pardus
Linnaeus, 1758

Panthera is a genus of the family Felidae (the cats), which contains four well-known living species: the Lion, the Tiger, the Jaguar, and the Leopard. The genus comprises about half of the Pantherinae subfamily, the big cats. One meaning of the word panther is to designate cats of this subfamily. The name comes from the Greek πάνθηρ, panther, which means "all-hunting".

Only these four cat species have the anatomical changes enabling them to roar. The primary reason for this was assumed to be the incomplete ossification of the hyoid bone. However, new studies show that the ability to roar is due to other morphological features, especially of the larynx. The Snow Leopard, Uncia uncia, which is sometimes included within Panthera, does not roar. Although it has an incomplete ossification of the hyoid bone, it lacks the special morphology of the larynx.[2]

Evolution

Like much of the Felidae family, Panthera has been subject to much debate and taxonomic revision. At the base of the genus is probably the extinct felid Viretailurus schaubi, which is sometimes also regarded as an early member of the Puma group. Panthera has likely derived in Asia, but the definite roots of the genus remain unclear. The divergence of the Pantherine cats (including the living genera Panthera, Uncia and Neofelis) from the Felinae (including all other living cat species) has been ranked between six and ten Ma[3]. The fossil record points to the emergence of Panthera just two to 3.8 million years ago[4].

Morphological and genetic studies have suggested that the tiger was the first of the recent Panthera species to emerge from the lineage[5], but this remains unresolved. About 1,9 Million years ago the jaguar obviously demerged from the remaining group, which contained ancestors of leopard and lion. Lion and leopard seem to have separated about 1 to 1,25 Million years ago from another.[citation needed] The Snow Leopard was seen originally at the base of the Panthera, but newer molecular studies suggest, that it may be even a sister species of the Leopard.[5] A prehistoric feline, which was probably closely related to the modern Jaguar is Panthera gombaszogensis, often called European Jaguar. This species appeared first around 1.6 Million years ago in what is now Olivola in Italy.

The Clouded Leopard (Neofelis nebulosa) is generally placed at the basis of the Panthera group, but is not included in the genus Panthera itself.[3][5][6][7]

Many studies place the Snow Leopard within the genus Panthera[3][5][7] but there is no consensus whether the scientific name of the Snow Leopard should remain Uncia uncia[8][9] or be moved to Panthera uncia.[3][5][6][7]

Species, subspecies, and populations

There have been many subspecies of all four Panthera species suggested; however, many of the Leopard and Lion subspecies are questionable. Recently it has been proposed that all sub-saharan populations of Leopards are all the same Leopard subspecies, and all sub-saharan populations of Lions likewise belong to the same Lion subspecies, as they do not have sufficient genetic distinction between them. Some prehistoric Lion subspecies have been described from historical evidence and fossils. They may have been separate species.

The 'Black panther' is not a distinct species but just a common name for black specimens of the genus, most often encountered in Jaguar and Leopard species.

Taxa

(Extinct species and subspecies are indicated with the symbol †)

References

  1. ^ a b Wozencraft, W. C. (16 November 2005). in Wilson, D. E., and Reeder, D. M. (eds): Mammal Species of the World, 3rd edition, Johns Hopkins University Press, 546-548. ISBN 0-801-88221-4. 
  2. ^ Nowak, Ronald M. (1999). Walker's Mammals of the World. Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-5789-9. 
  3. ^ a b c d Johnson, W.E., Eizirik, E., Pecon-Slattery, J., Murphy, W.J., Antunes, A., Teeling, E. & O'Brien, S.J. (2006). "The Late Miocene radiation of modern Felidae: A genetic assessment.". Science 311: 73–77. 
  4. ^ Turner A (1987) New fossil carnivore remains from the Sterkfontein hominid site (Mammalia: Carnivora). Ann Transvall Mus 34:319–347
  5. ^ a b c d e Yu L & Zhang YP (2005). "Phylogenetic studies of pantherine cats (Felidae) based on multiple genes, with novel application of nuclear beta-fibrinogen intron 7 to carnivores". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 35 (2): 483–495. 
  6. ^ a b Johnson WE & Obrien SJ (1997). "Phylogenetic reconstruction of the Felidae using 16S rRNA and NADH-5 mitochondrial genes". Journal of Molecular Evolution 44: S98-S116. 
  7. ^ a b c Dianne N. Janczewski, William S. Modi, J. Claiborne Stephens, and Stephen J. O'Brien (1996). "Molecular Evolution of Mitochondrial 12S RNA and Cytochrome b Sequences in the Pantherine Lineage of Felidae". Molecular Biology and Evolution 12 (4): 690. Retrieved on 2006-08-06. 
  8. ^ Cat Specialist Group (2002). Uncia uncia. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 11 May 2006.
  9. ^ Felid Taxon Advisory Group: Alan H. Shoemaker (1996) Taxonomic and Legal Status of the Felidae
  10. ^ O'Regan, H & Turner, A (2004). "Biostratigraphic & palaeoecological implications of new fossil felid material from the Plio-Pleistocene site of Tegelen, the Netherlands". Palaeontology 42 (5): 1181-1193. 
  11. ^ Luo SJ, Kim JH, Johnson WE, Walt Jvd, Martenson J, et al. (2004). "Phylogeography and Genetic Ancestry of Tigers (Panthera tigris)". PLoS Biol 2 (12): e442. DOI:10.1371/journal.pbio.0020442. 
  • A. Turner: The big cats and their fossil relatives. Columbia University Press, 1997.ISBN 0-231-10229-1

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Copyrights:

Veterinary Dictionary. Saunders Comprehensive Veterinary Dictionary 3rd Edition. Copyright © 2007 by D.C. Blood, V.P. Studdert and C.C. Gay, Elsevier. All rights reserved.  Read more
WordNet. WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Panthera".  Read more

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