ON THE EDGE OF EXTINCTION - A - THE TIGER (Panthera tigris)

[Sanju]

(03-22-2019, 05:41 PM)Rishi Wrote: Please don't... Men (& women) of science mustn't "believe".

Actually, I agree and "support" that taxonomical (classification) haplotype cladistics and phylogeny systematics of Cat Classification Task Force (CCTF) of IUCN Cat Specialist Group.

(03-22-2019, 05:41 PM)Rishi Wrote: How so?

I'll stick to this and sounds more realistic and scientifical:

https://repository.si.edu/bitstream/hand...sAllowed=y

And I agree more with classification which is given more importance (relatively) genotypical or molecular mtDNA comparative analysis and microsatellite diversity based (genetical) than phenotypical based (morphological) which deals with anatomical and structural aspects and features as well as behavioral characteristics.

Subspecies differentiation in the tiger would have resulted from geographical isolation, genetic drift and local adaptation associated with repeated restriction and expansion of habitats in the last 100,000 years "only", Climate and humans can be some of the reasons behind. In this short time, evolution of 9 subspecies and coining them as spp according to geographical names or adaptations and modifications is pretty far fetched.

Since, 2 million years to 0.1 million yrs of true tiger evolution only, only about 4 Pleistocene tigris spp are occurred at maximum but now from single ancestor, evolution of 9 spp clades in just 1,00,000 yrs is ambiguous.

And I agree with 2 spp classification of lion too. Reply