ON THE EDGE OF EXTINCTION - D - THE LEOPARD (Panthera pardus)

[BorneanTiger]

The complicated relationship between the leopard and snow leopard

On one hand, based on phylogenetic analysis of DNA sequence sampled across the living Felidæ, the snow leopard forms a sister group with the tiger. The time of the genetic divergence of this group is estimated at 4.62 to 1.82 million years. The snow leopard and the tiger probably diverged between 3.7 and 2.7 million years ago. Panthera originates most likely in northern Central Asia. Panthera blytheæ, excavated in western Tibet's Ngari Prefecture, is the oldest known species in Panthera, and exhibits skull characteristics similar to the snow leopard: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/311/5757/73, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266755142, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar...via%3Dihub, https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/1....2013.2686

2 cladograms (by Sainsf) proposed for the genus Panthera. The upper cladogram is based on a 2006 phylogenetic study by Warren E. Johnson (of the National Cancer Institute) and colleagues, and a 2009 study by Lars Werdelin and colleagues. The lower cladogram is based on a 2010 study by Brian W. Davis (of the Texas A&M University) and colleagues and a 2011 study by Ji H. Mazák (of the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum) and colleagues.

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One the other hand, 2016 study revealed that the mitochondrial genomes of snow leopards, leopards and lions are more similar to each other than their nuclear genomes, indicating that the ancestors of snow leopards hybridised with those of leopards and lions at some point in their evolution: https://genome.cshlp.org/content/26/1/1 Reply