The Cats of Indochina & Sundaland
The recent and rapid radiation of major felid lineages occurred approximately 10mya, coinciding with the fluctuating geological and climatological conditions in South-East Asia at the time. This dynamic history of South-East Asia produced a complex and highly diverse range of ecosystems in the Indochinese-Sundaic region (see figure 1).12 of the 37 known cats species have emerged from this area, making it the most felid-rich region in the world (Luo et.al. 2014). An investigation by Luo et.al (2014) compared the phylogeny of six felid species from the region by using multiple loci from mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and nuclear DNA. They found that the central Thai-Malay Peninsula served as a biogeographic boundary and that there was significant phylogenetic partitions within all species, except the leopard, between Indochina and Sundaland (Luo et.al. 2014). Deep Indochinese-Sundaic divergences around 2mya in the leopard cat and the marbled cat were revealed by mtDNA and nuclear DNA. This wa...
