Pantherinae is a subfamily 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 ...

; it was named and first described by

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. Edwar ...

in 1917 as only including the '' Panthera'' species. The Pantherinae genetically diverged from a

common ancestor Common descent is a concept in evolutionary biology applicable when one species is the ancestor of two or more species later in time. All living beings are in fact descendants of a unique ancestor commonly referred to as the last universal comm ...

between and .

Characteristics

Pantherinae species are characterised by an imperfectly 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 verteb ...

with elastic

tendon A tendon or sinew is a tough, high-tensile-strength band of dense fibrous connective tissue that connects muscle to bone. It is able to transmit the mechanical forces of muscle contraction to the skeletal system without sacrificing its ability ...

s that enable their larynx to be mobile. They have a flat rhinarium that only barely reaches the dorsal side of the nose. The area between the nostrils is narrow, and not extended sidewards as in the Felinae. The '' Panthera'' species have a single, rounded, vocal fold with a thick mucosal lining, a large vocalis muscle, and a large

cricothyroid muscle The cricothyroid muscle is the only tensor muscle of the larynx aiding with phonation. It is innervated by the superior laryngeal nerve. Its action tilts the thyroid forward to help tense the vocal cords. Structure The cricothyroid muscle or ...

with long and narrow membranes. A vocal fold that is longer than enables all but the snow leopard among them to roar, as it has shorter vocal folds of that provide a lower resistance to airflow; this distinction was one reason it was proposed to be retained in the genus ''Uncia''.

Classification

Pocock originally defined the Pantherinae as comprising the

genera Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial ...

'' Panthera'' and ''Uncia''. Today, ''Uncia'' has been subsumed to ''Panthera'', and the genus '' Neofelis'' is also included.

Living genera

The following table shows the extant taxa within the Pantherinae, grouped according to the traditional

phenotypical In genetics, the phenotype () is the set of observable characteristics or traits of an organism. The term covers the organism's morphology or physical form and structure, its developmental processes, its biochemical and physiological prop ...

classification. Estimated

genetic divergence Genetic divergence is the process in which two or more populations of an ancestral species accumulate independent genetic changes (mutations) through time, often leading to reproductive isolation and continued mutation even after the populations hav ...

times of the genotypical pantherine lineage are indicated in

million years ago The abbreviation Myr, "million years", is a unit of a quantity of (i.e. ) years, or 31.556926 teraseconds. Usage Myr (million years) is in common use in fields such as Earth science and cosmology. Myr is also used with Mya (million years ago). ...

(mya), based on analysis of

autosomal An autosome is any chromosome that is not a sex chromosome. The members of an autosome pair in a diploid cell have the same morphology, unlike those in allosomal (sex chromosome) pairs, which may have different structures. The DNA in autosomes ...

xDNA xDNA (also known as expanded DNA or benzo-homologated DNA) is a size-expanded nucleotide system synthesized from the fusion of a benzene ring and one of the four natural bases: adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine. This size expansion ...

, yDNA and

mtDNA Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA or mDNA) is the DNA located in mitochondrion, mitochondria, cellular organelles within eukaryotic cells that convert chemical energy from food into a form that cells can use, such as adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mit ...

gene segments; and estimates based on analysis of biparental nuclear genomes.

Evolution

The Felidae originated in Central Asia in the

Late Miocene The Late Miocene (also known as Upper Miocene) is a sub-epoch of the Miocene Epoch made up of two stages. The Tortonian and Messinian stages comprise the Late Miocene sub-epoch, which lasted from 11.63 Ma (million years ago) to 5.333 Ma. The ...

; the subfamily Pantherinae diverged from the Felidae between and . Several

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 preserved ...

''Panthera'' species were described: *'' Panthera blytheae'' is the oldest known species that possibly lived about . *'' Panthera palaeosinensis'' lived in the early Pleistocene around two to three million years ago in northern

East Asia East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. China, North Korea, South Korea ...

. *'' Panthera zdanskyi'' is dated to . *'' Panthera gombaszoegensis'' lived from about in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

. *'' Panthera youngi'' lived in the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the '' Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed ...

about in China. *'' Panthera spelaea'' lived in Europe after the third Cromerian interglacial stage from about 450,000 to 14,000 years ago. *'' Panthera atrox'' lived in North America during the Pleistocene and early Holocene about 340,000 to 11,000 years ago. *''

Panthera shawi ''Panthera shawi'' is an extinct prehistoric cat, of which a single canine tooth was excavated in Sterkfontein cave in South Africa by Robert Broom in the 1940s. Broom described it in 1948 using the scientific name ''Felis shawi''. It is thoug ...

'' was a lion-like cat in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...

that possibly lived in the early Pleistocene. *'' Panthera balamoides'' lived in the Yucatan Peninsula in

Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...

, during the Pleistocene. There is evidence of distinct markers for the mitochondrial genome for Felidae. Results of a DNA-based study indicate that the tiger (''Panthera tigris'') branched off first, followed by the jaguar (''P. onca''), the lion (''P. leo''), then the leopard (''P. pardus'') and snow leopard (''P. uncia''). ''Felis pamiri'', formerly referred to as '' Metailurus'', is now considered a probable relative of extant Pantherinae.

References

External links