Research overview: the puma lineage of cheetah, puma, and jaguarundi

One of the eight felid lineages groups three superficially different cats: the puma, the cheetah, and the jaguarundi. This overview explains how molecular phylogenetics revealed this surprising relationship, showing that the cheetah's closest relatives are the American puma and jaguarundi rather than the big cats it superficially resembles. It discusses the lineage's biogeographic history, with evidence that its members originated in North America before the cheetah's ancestors dispersed to the Old World and the puma and jaguarundi spread through the Americas. The piece highlights how this clade exemplifies the power of genetics to uncover counterintuitive relationships obscured by ecological convergence. It connects to broader felid systematics, where molecular data repeatedly grouped cats by ancestry rather than by appearance or hunting style.