Mitochondrial phylogeography of the extinct Caspian tiger and its tie to the Amur tiger

This study extracted DNA from museum specimens of the extinct Caspian tiger and compared it with living subspecies, revealing that the Caspian and Amur tigers were extremely close genetically, essentially a single lineage separated only recently. The result implied the Caspian tiger colonized Central Asia from East Asia along a narrow corridor, and that the Amur tiger is its closest living relative. For taxonomy and conservation, the finding suggested the extinct Caspian form could, in principle, be ecologically replaced by Amur tigers in restoration projects. The paper is a model of using ancient and historical DNA to clarify the status of vanished populations, informing both the tiger subspecies debate and discussions about rewilding Central Asia with the genetically nearest survivors.