Genomic ancestry of the American puma (Puma concolor)

This study used molecular markers to assess genetic variation across the puma's enormous range from Canada to Patagonia and found surprisingly low diversity in North America. The authors concluded that North American pumas descend from a recent recolonization following a late Pleistocene extinction, with the ancestral diversity concentrated in South America. They argued that the roughly 30 traditionally named subspecies vastly overstated true variation and proposed recognizing only about six subspecies, mostly in South America with a single subspecies across all of North America. The work fundamentally revised puma taxonomy, collapsing an inflated subspecies list, and carried direct conservation implications for populations like the Florida panther. It is a classic example of molecular data deflating morphology-based subspecies and reconstructing a wide-ranging cat's recent demographic history.