Comparing Cats: A Discussion of Similarities & Differences

[Balam]

Credits to @epaiva for initially posting this really nice scan from one of Mauricio Anton's book going into detail as to why jaguars have such a potent bite. Mauricio made a comparison with the leopard who has a completely different skull:

*This image is copyright of its original author

Jaguars have shorter rostrums and wide zygomatic arches, which is the complete opposite of leopards who have long rostrum and narrow zygomatic arches. All of this proportionally but since jaguars are significantly larger cats they also end up having the longer skulls at maximum lengths for virtue of size. 

Having a shorter but wider skull provides more leverage around the jaw which increases the bite force, as shown by the scissors analogy.

Here's a jaguar and leopard side by side at sanctuary:

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

In addition to jaguars having wider and shorter skulls (proportionally), their skull is also much taller and the forehead is pronounced as opposed to the leopard's which is more concave. 

In the first two pictures one can appreciate how the leopard skull could fit twice in the jaguar's since the former has a much taller and wider head, and this is with a jaguar that weighed 90 kg and was much smaller than the jaguars who live in the wild in floodplain areas that grow much larger than that, the difference in size would be much more outspoken. The leopard on the other hand would be standard for a large male if we assume it to be only somewhat smaller than the jaguar based on these pictures, likely around 80 kg in weight. Reply