Pantherinae: Big Cat Family



The majestic Pantherinae subfamily or the 'big cats' are the largest and most robust felids in existence, sometimes classified as the roaring cats compared to the purring cats of the Felinae subfamily (Christiansen 2008). Approximately 10.8 million years ago, the Felidae lineage began to diverge into the Felinae and the Pantherinae subfamilies. The radiation of the Pantherinae subfamily resulted in the emergence of 7 modern extant species and all members of the subfamily have the genus Panthera, with the exception of the Neofelis sp. (Johnson et.al. 2006). Three species of Panthera are shown below (Figure 1), exhibiting the similarities in the craniomandibular structures. By about 300 thousand years ago the big cats had populated the majority of the northern hemisphere with the lions extending from Africa into Europe and north-east Asia while competition with the largest extant felids, tigers, may have kept them out of south-east Asia and southern China. Leopards inhabited most of Africa and parts of Asia, whereas the jaguars have been mainly limited to South/Central America for some time (Werdelin et.al. 2009).




Figure 1. From left to right: The skull of a lion (Panthera leo), a tiger (Panthera tigris) and a jaguar (Panthera onca) all possessing conical maxillary canines (Weissengruber et.al. 2002).





The position of the snow leopard (P. uncia) in the Felidae family tree is a unique and controversial case, some believe that it belongs with the purring cats of Felinae because it can purr and others believe it belongs to its own subfamily. The Pantherinae clade has the best preserved fossil record in the Felidae family, and yet it also has the longest ghost lineage, meaning that large sections of cladistic reconstructions on the history of the Pantherines are undocumented by fossil records (Werdelin et.al. 2009). The oldest known fossil is dated at an infantile age of 3.8 million years old, followed by a fossil of the Longdan Tiger (P. zdanskyi) dated at only 2.55-2.16 million years old (Mazak et.al 2011). Christiansen (2008) suggests that the clouded leopard (Neofelis sp.) is the most basal extant Pantherine, followed by the snow leopard.


It is evident that there is little known about the big cats and their evolutionary history. Furthermore, with human activity intensifying and leaving little time for the Pantherines to adapt, it is sad to believe that a day might come when the only evidence that the big cats once wandered the earth will be buried in the ground.

References: 
  • Christiansen P 2008, 'Phylogeny of the great cats (Felidae: Pantherinae), and the influence of fossil taxa and missing characters', Cladistics, vol. 24, pp. 977-992.
  • Johnson WE, Eizirik E, Pecon-Slattery J, Murphy WJ, Antunes A, Teeling E and O'Brien SJ 2006, 'The Late Miocene Radiation of Modern Felidae: A Genetic Assessment', Science, vol. 311, no. 5757, pp. 73-77.
  • Mazak JH, Christiansen P & Kitchener AC 2011, 'Oldest Known Pantherine Skull and Evolution of the Tiger', PlosOne, viewed 4 April 2015, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0025483.
  • Weissengruber GE, Forstenpointner G, Peters G, Kübber-Heiss A & Fitch WT 2002, 'Hyoid apparatus and pharynx in the lion (Panthera leo), jaguar (Panthera onca), tiger (Panthera tigris), cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) and domestic cat (Felis silvestris f. catus)', Journal of Anatomy, vol. 201, no. 3, pp. 195-209.
  • Werdelin L, Yamaguchi N, Johnson WE, and O’Brien SJ 2009, 'Phylogeny and evolution of cats (Felidae)', in Macdonald DW & Loveridge AJ (ed.), Biology and Conservation of Wild Felids, Oxford University Press, pp. 59-82. 


Comments

  1. Unknown5 April 2015 at 18:21

    Interesting post.
    On jaguars though, you say they are "limited to South America", but they are also found in Central and North America as well, ranging as far north as Mexico and even the southernmost parts of the United States.

    What you said of the snow leopard is quite interesting. While I have heard ideas it should have its own genus- Uncia- rather than being in the genus Panthera, I never realised some have actually argued for placing it outside the Pantherinae.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lili Usher-Chandler6 April 2015 at 17:41

      I apologise, I meant to have said that jaguars are mainly limited to South America, meaning they have still been known to extend of course into Central America and maybe a bit further north. And yes, because they can purr, as well as other morphological similarities it has been suggested that they are placed in the Felinae group the 'purring cats'

      Delete
    2. Lili Usher-Chandler6 April 2015 at 18:05

      For example, the tall, abbreviated rostrum of the snow leopard's skull is also characteristic of non-pantherine cats - Felinae cats for example domestic cats.

      Delete
  2. Tasmin10 April 2015 at 17:48

    I have a particular fondness for lions, so found this quite interesting. I was wondering where cheetahs fit in the mix? Their genus is Acinonyx, which is monotypic. Aside from cranio-mandibular structure, are there other features characteristic of the Pantherinae?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lili Usher-Chandler12 April 2015 at 00:15

      For a while the cheetah was considered to be in a separate family called Acinonychinae but it was recently decided that cheetahs belong in Felinae with the medium to small sized cats. I mention them in the Felinae blog and they will also be the subject of next weeks blog. About other features for the Pantherinae subfamily, as I said there is usually not a lot of difference between Felinae cats and Pantherinae cats except the skull but body shape is also sometimes important for example many Felines have comparatively larger hind legs while Pantherines have larger fore legs which is due to different hunting strategies. Also, Pantherines usually roar and do not purr with the exception of P. uncia.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Proailurus: The First Cat

Image
Proailurus, as I mentioned in my first blog, is latin for 'first cat' because it is currently accepted as the first 'true cat' and thus the earliest felid known to modern science. Proailurus was a part of the Proailurinae subfamily which appeared around 35 million years ago and included three known species; P. lemanensis , P. bourbonnensis and P. major . P. lemanensis has the most extensive fossil record and is illustrated below in figure 1. Proailurus was a medium sized cat with similar dimensions to a modern bobcat. Although the dentition of Proailurus does differ to modern cats with slightly different dental topography and the reduction of certain elements, overall dental characteristics show a remarkable resemblance to living felids (Werdelin et. al. 2009). As seen in figure 1, the body structure of Proailurus also exhibits a great likeness to extant cats. The auditory bulla (the structure which houses the middle ear) and postcranium of P. lemanensis are the o
Read more

The Kingdom of the Cats: An Introduction to the Felidae Family

Image
The cat family is one of the most recognisable carnivores on Earth, but its origins continue to be a subject poorly understood by scientists and hardly acknowledged by the public. The first carnivore to exhibit characteristics typical of a true cat appeared approximately 35 million years ago in the Oligocene era (Werdelin et. al. 2009). This ancestor, believed to be Proailurus  meaning 'first cat', would then give rise to four subfamilies: Machairodontinae, Pantherinae and Felinae (McKenna & Bell 2000). The two latter being the only extant subfamilies. From endemic species to invasive species, the Felidae family currently occupies almost every single continent. For example, the Bengal Tiger ( Panthera tigris ) and the Domestic Cat ( Felis catus ) are both from the Felidae family.   Every aspect of a cat's morphology and behaviour suggests that it is a superior predator with enduring adaptive abilities. The Felidae family possesses a relatively short phylogenetic history
Read more