Panthera
Panthera is one of the family of the cat-like (Felidae) which comprises four species (leopard, Lion, tiger and Jaguar). These species are characterized by the capacity to howl.
The kind Panthera was defined by Oken in 1816; it is classified in the Pantherinés (Pantherinae), Sous-famille called differently " large félins".
Species and subspecies
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Panthera pardus - Léopard
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Panthera leo - Lion
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Panthera tigris - Tiger
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Panthera onca - Jaguar
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Panthera uncia - Ounce
Hybridizations and anomalies of peeling
It happens that individuals of different species couple and give Hybride S, the such Tigron or the Ligre (between the lion and the tiger), but also between the four species. But these rare individuals are often born in captivity.The anomalies of peeling are not more frequent, but also touch the four species. It happens that is born a lion or a white tiger, a panther or a black jaguar.
History
The first traces of the kind Panthera date from the average Pliocène (3,5 million years approximately) of Europe. Its fossils are allotted to Panthera gombaszoegensis . Nevertheless, in Africa, another found fossil with Laetoli, also gone back to 3,5 million years seems to belong to a primitive lion.Panthera gombaszoegensis would however be the first species of kind Panthera ; it had characters of lions and tigers, its fossils have summers formally identified on the continent of Europe (France, Italy, England, Spain, Germany and Netherlands) in the deposits dated from late Pliocène and the Pléistocène lower and average.
Other fossils of the lower Pleistocene of the Old world belong to Panthera combaszoe and Panthera schreuderi .
The first forms of leopard S , Panthera crassidens , appeared at lower Pleistocene (1,5 million years) in Africa; then the species, after being replaced by Panthera pardus , migrated on all Africa, to Europe (where it is currently disappeared) and on all Asia.
The primitive forms of Lion S oldest come from Tanzania (Gorges of Olduvai, lower Pléistocène, 1,7 million years) and are allotted to Panthera leo fossilis . It seems to have penetrated in Europe 700.000 years ago (Italy) where it settled. Several fossils have summers found in France, Spain and Germany. Panthera leo fossilis was larger than the tiger of Siberia ( Panthera tigris altaica ).
Approximately 350.000 years ago, Panthera leo fossilis was replaced by another smaller subspecies hardly: Panthera leo spelaea , the Lion of the caves . This subspecies was found a little everywhere in Europe (France, Germany, England) in Eastern Siberia. This lion is well-known on the walls of the European caves, by engravings and paintings of the Paléolithique superior; other images have summers engraved in Ivoire (defenses of Mammouth S). It seems that, according to “testimonys” of the Grotte Chauvet, the lion of the caves was to be specialized in hunting for the bisons ( Bison priscus ).
The lions of Asia ( Panthera leo persica ) seem to be a relic of the lions of the caves. At the end of the glacial period, its territory extended from the Italian peninsula in India.
A subspecies of the size of the lion of Asia, with shorter cranium (called Panthera leo vereshchagini ), settled during a general cooling, approximately 35.000 years ago, on the Bering Strait, of the Siberia (Russia) to the territory of the Yukon (Canada); immense a Glacier separated Yukon and Alaska from the remainder of the continent of North America.
During a warming, 25.000 years ago, the Bering Strait was erased again under water; a ground corridor was created along the Rocky Mountains, connecting the Yukon Territory and the United States; the lions, having again evolved/moved, migrated towards the United States.
This ultimate subspecies, called Panthera leo atrox , the American Lion , was largest and most powerful of all the subspecies of lions (larger still than the tiger of Siberia and its ancestor Panthera leo fossilis ). It settled quickly on this continent. Its more beautiful fossils come from Rancho Brea, a layer of natural tar in Los Angeles where summers exhumed nearly 80 specimens have.
The subspecies settled in Mexico, passed the Isthme of Panama and migrated towards the South America. It was blocked by the Andes, but settled along the Pacific to Peru.
The lions of the America and Bering Strait ( Panthera leo vereshchagini ) ( Panthera leo atrox ) probably have the same origin as the tiger S ( Panthera tigris ); one little thus to suggest that Panthera leo spelaea was also the ancestor of the tiger. The species Panthera palaeosinensis , of the average Pleistocene of China, was without any doubt the missing link between the two species. Formerly, one could meet the tiger in minor Asia, but it died out, victim of hunting.
The Jaguar ( Panthera onca ), is undoubtedly the downward one of Panthera leo atrox . Panthera onca augusta , a North-American species of jaguar, was also exhumed wells of tar of Rancho Brea. The jaguar formerly lived in North America, before dying out, victim of hunting.
Appendices
Photograph gallery
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Leopard
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