''Leopardus'' is a genus comprising eight species of small cats native to the

Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. Along with th ...

. This genus is considered the oldest branch of a genetic lineage of small cats in the Americas whose common ancestor crossed the Bering land bridge from Asia to North America in 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 ...

Characteristics

''Leopardus'' species have spotted fur, with ground colors ranging from pale

buff Buff or BUFF may refer to: People * Buff (surname), a list of people * Buff (nickname), a list of people * Johnny Buff, ring name of American world champion boxer John Lisky (1888–1955) * Buff Bagwell, a ring name of American professional wr ...

ochre Ochre ( ; , ), or ocher in American English, is a natural clay earth pigment, a mixture of ferric oxide and varying amounts of clay and sand. It ranges in colour from yellow to deep orange or brown. It is also the name of the colours produced ...

, fulvous and

tawny Tawny may refer to: * Tawny (given name), a feminine given name * Tawny (color) * Tawny port, a fortified wine * ''Tawny'', a 1954 record album by Jackie Gleason * Tawny, a townland in Kilcar, County Donegal, Ireland See also * Tenné, a "sta ...

to light gray. Their small ears are rounded and white-spotted; their rhinarium is prominent and naked above, and their nostrils are widely separated. They have 36 chromosomes, whereas other felids have 38.

Taxonomy

The generic name ''Leopardus'' was proposed by John Edward Gray in 1842, when he described two spotted cat skins from Central America and two from India in the collection of the Natural History Museum, London. Several genera were proposed in the 19th and early 20th centuries for small spotted cats in the Americas, including: *''Dendrailurus'', ''Lynchailurus'', ''Noctifelis'', ''Oncifelis'' and ''Oncoïdes'' by Nikolai Severtzov in 1858; *''Margay'', ''Pajeros'', ''Pardalina'' and ''Pardalis'' by Gray in 1867; *''Oncilla'' by Joel Asaph Allen in 1919; *''Oreailurus'' by Ángel Cabrera in 1940; *''Colocolo'' 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. Edward ...

in 1941. Analysis of skull morphology of these taxa revealed close similarities in their base of skulls and

nasal bone The nasal bones are two small oblong bones, varying in size and form in different individuals; they are placed side by side at the middle and upper part of the face and by their junction, form the bridge of the upper one third of the nose. Eac ...

s, their

masticatory muscles There are four classical muscles of mastication. During mastication, three muscles of mastication (''musculi masticatorii'') are responsible for adduction of the jaw, and one (the lateral pterygoid) helps to abduct it. All four move the jaw lat ...

, and dentition. Phylogenetic analysis of tissue samples of these taxa and their ability to hybridise support the notion that they are members of the same genus. The following living ''Leopardus'' species are recognized as valid taxa since 2017: Analysis of 142 Pampas cat museum specimen collected across South America showed significant morphological differences between them. Therefore, it was proposed to split the Pampas cat and oncilla species complexes, and recognize the following as distinct species: the Pantanal cat (''L. braccatus''),

eastern oncilla The oncilla (''Leopardus tigrinus''), also known as the northern tiger cat, little spotted cat, and tigrillo, is a small spotted cat ranging from Central America to central Brazil. It is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, and the p ...

(''L. emiliae''),

northern colocolo Garlepp's pampas cat (''Leopardus colocola garleppi''), also called the northern pampas cat, is a subspecies of the pampas cat. It has more recently been classified as a full species (''Leopardus garleppi'') within a pampas cat species complex. ...

(''L. garleppi''), Muñoa's colocolo (''L. munoai'') and southern colocolo (''L. pajeros''). This classification has yet to be accepted by other taxonomists.

Phylogeny

Phylogenetic analysis of the nuclear DNA in tissue samples from all Felidae species revealed that the evolutionary radiation of the Felidae began in Asia in the Miocene around . Analysis of

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

of all Felidae species indicates a radiation at around . The last common ancestor of ''Leopardus'', ''Puma'' and ''Lynx'' is estimated to have lived , based on analysis of nuclear DNA of cat species. Analysis of their mitochondrial DNA indicates that their last common ancestor lived . ''Leopardus'' forms an evolutionary

lineage Lineage may refer to: Science * Lineage (anthropology), a group that can demonstrate its common descent from an apical ancestor or a direct line of descent from an ancestor * Lineage (evolution), a temporal sequence of individuals, populati ...

that genetically diverged between and . It crossed the

Isthmus of Panama The Isthmus of Panama ( es, Istmo de Panamá), also historically known as the Isthmus of Darien (), is the narrow strip of land that lies between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, linking North and South America. It contains the country ...

probably during the Great American Biotic Interchange in the late Pliocene. ''

Leopardus vorohuensis ''Leopardus vorohuensis'' is an extinct species of feline. Fossils of the species were found in the Vorohué Formation of Argentina and dated to the Uquian age of the early middle Pleistocene. It is the earliest known cat of the ocelot lineage ...

'' is an extinct species of the genus, of which fossils were found in the Argentinian Vorohué Formation dated to the

early Pleistocene The Early Pleistocene is an unofficial sub-epoch in the international geologic timescale in chronostratigraphy, being the earliest division of the Pleistocene Epoch within the ongoing Quaternary Period. It is currently estimated to span the time ...

; its supraorbital foramen and shape of teeth resemble those of the pampas cat. Within the genus, three distinct

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, ...

s were identified: one comprising the ocelot and the margay, a second the Andean mountain cat and Pampas cat, and the third the kodkod, oncilla and Geoffroy's cat. The following cladogram shows estimated

divergence times The molecular clock is a figurative term for a technique that uses the mutation rate of biomolecules to deduce the time in prehistory when two or more life forms diverged. The biomolecular data used for such calculations are usually nucleoti ...

in million years ago (mya).

References

External links

* * * {{Taxonbar, from=Q318414 Mammal genera Extant Pleistocene first appearances Mammals of Central America Mammals of South America Mammals of North America Mammals described in 1842 Taxa named by John Edward Gray Felines