Comparing Cats: A Discussion of Similarities & Differences

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From:
Genome-wide signatures of complex introgression and adaptive evolution in the big cats

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Fig. 1 Evolutionary history of the great cats.

(A) Species tree of the genus Panthera estimated from genome-wide data. All five extant species are represented as follows: lion (Panthera leo), leopard (P. pardus), jaguar (Panthera onca), snow leopard (Panthera uncia), and tiger (Panthera tigris). Numbers above branches indicate the estimated age [in million years ago (Ma)] of the adjacent node, averaged across all genomic windows (100-kb window size, 100-kb steps) that conform to the species tree (95% highest posterior density interval below the respective branch). Colored rectangles on terminal branches indicate phenotypic categories (defined below the tree; see Fig. 3B for more details) affected by species-specific episodes of positive selection. (B) PSMC plot depicting the demographic history of the five Panthera species inferred from genomic data. © Genealogical discordance across the genome of Panthera cats, demonstrated by a sliding window analysis (500-kb window size, 100-kb steps) of a full-genome alignment mapped to domestic cat chromosomes (gray lines at the bottom). The y axis indicates the percentage of overlapping windows within a given interval that conform to (blue) or reject (red) the species tree. Photo credits: D. Kantek (jaguar); C. Sperka (others). Reply