Phylogenetics, genome diversity, and origin of the modern leopard

This study provided the first range-wide molecular assessment of the leopard, using mitochondrial and microsatellite data to evaluate the many subspecies that had been named on morphology. The authors found that African leopards harbor the deepest diversity and that the species likely originated in Africa before dispersing across Asia relatively recently. Crucially, the genetic data supported far fewer subspecies than the dozens previously recognized, consolidating Asian forms into a handful of clades while treating African leopards as broadly one group. The work became the basis for the modern eight or nine subspecies scheme later refined by the Cat Classification Task Force. It is a foundational example of molecular phylogeography correcting an inflated, morphology-based subspecies list in a wide-ranging cat.