Ferocious Felids: The Evolutionary Biology of Cats

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...

Panthera leo or the lion, is the most iconic of the Pantherines, with the earliest fossils from Africa dating back to about 2-1.5 million years ago (Antunes et.al. 2008). Lions had the greatest intercontinental distribution for a large land mammal, excluding humans, by the Late Pleistocene approximately 130,000-10,000 years ago (Antunes et.al. 2008). Their geographic range was very wide spread until their extinction from Europe 2,000 years ago and Eurasia and North Africa 150 years ago limiting them to sub-Saharan Africa and the Gir Forest in India (see Figure 1). In species of modern felids, large multigenic data sets are required due to their generally rapid and very recent speciation, and our knowledge of lion evolutionary history has mostly been hindered by the lack of appropriate genetic markers (Antunes et.al. 2008). A recent investigation has used host and virus genetic information of infectious disease outbreaks in lions and our knowledge of their unique social ecology to enha...