Real big cats
| Real big cats | ||||||||||||
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Lioness ( panthera leo ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Panthera | ||||||||||||
| Oken , 1816 |
The real big cats ( Panthera ) are a genus of the big cats (Pantherinae), a subfamily of cats (Felidae). In contrast to their closest relatives among the big cats, almost all types of "real big cats" can make roaring noises.
features
The species of the genus Panthera are among the largest cat species. Four of the five species are able to roar, but cannot purr when they breathe in like other cats, only when they breathe out. In contrast to other cats that have an ossified hyoid bone, all five Panthera species have an elastic hyoid bone. In the past, attempts were made to explain the ability to roar with this characteristic, but more recent studies show that roaring is related to other anatomical peculiarities, above all to a special development of the larynx . In the lion, leopard, tiger and jaguar, this is characterized by very long vocal folds and a thick pad made of elastic fabric, which allows these species to roar. The snow leopard (the only panthera species) and the other cat species do not have these characteristics and cannot roar.
Tribal history
At the origin of the Panthera there may be the species Viretailurus schaubi , which is sometimes thought to be a forerunner of the Puma line and is therefore possibly identical to Puma pardoides . Finds of this leopard-sized animal are around two million years old and come from the Rhone Valley in France. The genus Panthera may have originated in Asia, but the exact origins are in the dark. Morphological and genetic studies show that the tiger, as the first form of the recent species, has split off from the second line, which consists of jaguar, lion and leopard. In this group, according to this study, the jaguar line split off from lion and leopard, which only later separated. The snow leopard was originally mostly seen at the base of the genus, but recent molecular genetic studies suggest that it could possibly be the leopard's sister species. A recent study covering the entire mitochondrial DNA sequence supports these findings in part. Here, too, a separation first of the clouded leopard, then the tiger and finally the jaguar from the other species was supported. However, the leopard is said to have split off first, while the lion and the snow leopard apparently represent sister species.
The American lion ( Panthera atrox ) was native to North America and was probably closely related to the Eurasian cave lion as well as recent lions and the leopard. An extinct big cat, probably closely related to the jaguar, is known as the European jaguar ( Panthera gombaszogensis ). The oldest fossil finds date from 1.6 million years ago in the area around Olivola in Italy. Other large cats that have been handed down in fossil form are Panthera zdanskyi as a potentially close relative of the tiger, the Panthera blytheae found in Tibet , which is probably closely related to the snow leopard, and the Panthera balamoides, which is described using a humerus from a zenote in Yucatan .
Systematics
The genus Panthera includes:
- Tiger ( panthera tigris )
- Jaguar ( Panthera onca )
- Lion ( panthera leo )
- Leopard ( panthera pardus )
- Snow leopard ( Panthera uncia )
In the past, the snow leopard was often placed in its own genus Uncia . Today it is usually included in the genus Panthera , which is also supported by molecular genetic analyzes. The clouded leopard ( Neofelis nebulosa ) is not a panther , but is very close to the genus.
literature
- A. Turner: The big cats and their fossil relatives. Columbia University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-231-10229-1 .
- Ronald M. Nowak: Walker's Mammals of the World. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999, ISBN 0-8018-5789-9 .
- Joachim Burger, Wilfried Rosendahl, Odile Loreille, Helmut Hemmer, Torsten Eriksson, Anders Götherström, Jennifer Hiller, Matthew J. Collins, Timothy Wess, and Kurt W. Alt: Molecular phylogeny of the extinct cave lion Panthera leo spelaea . In: Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution . tape 30 , no. 3 , March 1, 2004, ISSN 1055-7903 , p. 841–849 , doi : 10.1016 / j.ympev.2003.07.020 ( uni-mainz.de ( memento of November 7, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) [PDF; 196 kB ; accessed on April 11, 2018]).
- Sunquist, ME & Sunquist, FC (2009). Family Felidae (Cats). (128-130). In: Wilson, DE, Mittermeier, RA, (Eds.). Handbook of the Mammals of the World. Volume 1: Carnivores. Lynx Edicions, 2009, ISBN 978-84-96553-49-1 .
- John Seidensticker, Susan Lumpkin: Big Cats. Jahr-Verlag, Hamburg, ISBN 0-86438-233-2 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Li Yua, Ya-ping Zhang: Phylogenetic studies of pantherine cats (Felidae) based on multiple genes, with novel application of nuclear β-fibrinogen intron 7 to carnivores . In: Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 35, No. 2, 2005, pp. 483-495. doi : 10.1016 / j.ympev.2005.01.017 .
- ↑ Wei L, Wu X, Zhu L, Jiang Z: Mitogenomic analysis of the genus Panthera . In: Sci China Life Sci . 54, No. 10, October 2011, pp. 917-930. doi : 10.1007 / s11427-011-4219-1 . PMID 22038004 .
- ↑ Leigha M. King, Steven C. Wallace: Phylogenetics of Panthera, including Panthera atrox, based on craniodental characters. In: Historical Biology: An International Journal of Paleobiology. 26 (6), 2014, pp. 827-833. doi : 10.1080 / 08912963.2013.861462
- ^ Sarah R. Stinnesbeck, Wolfgang Stinnesbeck, Eberhard Frey, Jerónimo Avilés Olguín, Carmen Rojas Sandoval, Adriana Velázquez Morlet, Arturo H. González: Panthera balamoides and other Pleistocene felids from the submerged caves of Tulum, Quintana Roo, Mexico. In: Historical Biology, An International Journal of Paleobiology. 2019. doi : 10.1080 / 08912963.2018.1556649 .
