🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

This study described Panthera blytheae, a newly recognized fossil cat from the Tibetan Himalaya that represents the oldest known member of the pantherine lineage, the group containing all living big c…

Z. Jack Tseng, Xiaoming Wang, Graham J. Slater, Gary T. Takeuchi, Qiang Li, Juan Liu, Guangpu Xie · Proceedings of the Royal Society B · 2014

This study described Panthera zdanskyi, an exceptionally complete fossil cat skull from northwestern China that illuminates the early evolution of the tiger lineage. Dated to the Pliocene, the specime…

Ji H. Mazak, Per Christiansen, Andrew C. Kitchener · PLoS ONE · 2011

This authoritative review chapter synthesizes the evolutionary history and phylogeny of the cat family, integrating fossil evidence with molecular data to present a comprehensive picture of how cats d…

Lars Werdelin, Nobuyuki Yamaguchi, Warren E. Johnson, Stephen J. O'Brien · Biology and Conservation of Wild Felids (Oxford University Press) · 2010

This overview surveys Panthera gombaszoegensis, an extinct big cat of the Pleistocene of Europe and western Asia often nicknamed the European jaguar because of similarities to the living jaguar. Known…

This overview surveys Panthera palaeosinensis, an early pantherine from the Pliocene of China that has figured prominently in debates about the origins of big cats. Known from cranial and dental mater…

This overview examines why reconstructing the relationships among the living big cats has proven difficult, with different genes and analyses sometimes yielding conflicting trees. The lion, leopard, a…

This overview examines how molecular clocks, calibrated with fossils, have been used to estimate when the living big cats diverged from one another. Genetic studies place the origin of the Panthera li…

This overview examines the hypothesis that the Tibetan Plateau and surrounding high-altitude Central Asia served as a cradle for the evolution of big cats and other cold-adapted carnivores. The discov…

This overview surveys the fossil record of the jaguar lineage and its spread into the Americas. The jaguar, Panthera onca, traces its origins to Old World pantherines whose descendants crossed into No…

This overview surveys the fossil evidence for the evolution of the tiger, Panthera tigris, centred on Asia where the species and its relatives arose. Early forms such as the Pliocene Panthera zdanskyi…

This overview surveys the fossil history of the leopard, Panthera pardus, one of the most widely distributed living big cats. Fossils document the leopard's presence across Africa and Eurasia through…

This overview surveys evidence on where and when the Panthera lineage, the genus that includes lions, tigers, leopards, jaguars, and snow leopards, first arose. Molecular phylogenies place the diverge…

This overview surveys the evolutionary placement of the snow leopard within the big-cat genus Panthera and its relevance to fossil studies. Once isolated in its own genus, the snow leopard is now firm…

This landmark study used molecular genetics to reconstruct the evolutionary history of the cat family, resolving the relationships among all living felids and the timing of their diversification. The…

Warren E. Johnson, Eduardo Eizirik, Jill Pecon-Slattery, William J. Murphy, Agostinho Antunes, Emma Teeling, Stephen J. O'Brien · Science · 2006