There is a world somewhere between reality and fiction. Although ignored by many, it is very real and so are those living in it. This forum is about the natural world. Here, wild animals will be heard and respected. The forum offers a glimpse into an unknown world as well as a room with a view on the present and the future. Anyone able to speak on behalf of those living in the emerald forest and the deep blue sea is invited to join.
I was going off these studies, I forgot about Luo et al. Although, maybe certain members of the Amur population may have some link to the Amoy tiger based on Luo et al.'s study now that you point that out. Luo et al.'s specimen are all from the wild (Sikhote-Alin, recent). Where are Driscoll and Xue et al.'s specimens from, the papers aren't clear. I've attached the papers, maybe you guys could look through them and determine the Amur origin, I might be missing/forgetting something? This may be a very like scenario:
The Amur tiger faced a serious genetic bottleneck, reducing gene variation. Genetic drift in this small population could have removed all traces of Amoy genes. The Sikhote-Alin specimens sampled by Luo et al. (2004) may have not lost the Amoy genes to drift. Nevertheless, we need to clear up the origin's of the studies in this post to see if this theory is plausible. The method and type of genes sampled could cause the discrepancy, but I think all authors have sampled mostly the same genes.
Is there barrier between Driscoll et al.'s proposed line of subspeciation? Subspecies interbreed just fine in captivity, I doubt in the wild tigers would isolate as Driscoll et al. proposed without any geographical barrier.