| Puma pardoides Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Skull | |
 | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Suborder: | Feliformia |
| Family: | Felidae |
| Subfamily: | Felinae |
| Genus: | Puma |
| Species: | †P. pardoides |
| Binomial name | |
| †Puma pardoides (Owen, 1846) | |
| Synonyms | |
| |
Puma pardoides is an extinct prehistoric cat in the genus Puma known from fossils found across Eurasia.
Puma pardoides was originally described in 1846 as Felis pardoides. [1] A complete skull was described in 1954 as Panthera schaubi, [2] but was assigned in 1965 to a new genus as Viretailurus schaubi due to distinct differences from other pantherine cats. [3] In 2001, however, it was pointed out that the various puma-like fossils in Eurasia could all be attributed to a single species, Puma pardoides. [4] [5] And in 2004, Viretailurus schaubia was also found to be a junior synonym of Puma pardoides. [6]
Panthera schaubi or Viretailurus schaubi was historically often regarded as a basal member of the genus Panthera . [7] However, research in 2004 concluded that Viretailurus should actually be included in the genus Puma as a junior synonym of Puma pardoides. [6] [8] Fossils of this leopard-sized animal are around 2 million years old and were found in France. However, their classification was difficult, due to the similarities between leopards and pumas, until teeth found at the Upper Pliocene Transcaucasian site of Kvabebi were found to be similar to those of pumas. [6] It is inferred that the species, Puma pardoides is related to living pumas, which can be supported by Eurasian origin of the puma lineage. [9]
The last occurrences of Puma pardoides are from about 0.85 Ma. The extinction of this felid may have had something to do with the Mid-Pleistocene Transition. [10]
Felidae is the family of mammals in the order Carnivora colloquially referred to as cats. A member of this family is also called a felid.
Panthera is a genus within the family Felidae, and one of two extant genera in the subfamily Pantherinae. It contains the largest living members of the cat family. There are five living species: the jaguar, leopard, lion, snow leopard and tiger, as well as a number of extinct species, including the cave lion and American lion.
Acinonyx is a genus within the Felidae family. The only living species of the genus, the cheetah, lives in open grasslands of Africa and Asia.
Dinofelis is an extinct genus of machairodontine, usually classified in the tribe Metailurini. It was widespread in Europe, Asia, Africa and North America from 5 million to about 1.2 million years ago. Fossils very similar to Dinofelis from Lothagam range back to around 8 million years ago, in the Late Miocene.
Homotherium is an extinct genus of scimitar-toothed cat belonging to the extinct subfamily Machairodontinae that inhabited North America, Eurasia, and Africa during the Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs from around 4 million to 12,000 years ago. It was one of the last surviving members of the subfamily alongside the more famous sabertooth Smilodon, to which it was distantly related. It was a large cat, comparable in size to a lion, functioning as an apex predator in the ecosystems it inhabited. In comparison to Smilodon, the canines of Homotherium were shorter, and it is suggested to have a different ecology from Smilodon as pursuit predator adapted to running down prey in open habitats, with species of the genus also proposed to have engaged in cooperative hunting.
The Pantherinae is a subfamily of the Felidae; it was named and first described by Reginald Innes Pocock in 1917 as only including the Panthera species, but later also came to include the clouded leopards. The Pantherinae genetically diverged from a common ancestor between 9.32 to 4.47 million years ago and 10.67 to 3.76 million years ago.
Panthera gombaszoegensis, also known as the European jaguar, is a Panthera species that lived from about 2.0 to 0.35 million years ago in Europe. The first fossils were excavated in 1938 in Gombasek Cave, Slovakia. Some records were also reported from Africa and Asia. P. gombaszoegensis was a medium-large sized species that formed an important part of the European carnivore guild for a period of over a million years. Many authors have posited that it is the ancestor of the American jaguar, with some authors considering it the subspecies Panthera onca gombaszoegensis, though the close relationship between the two species has been questioned.
Panthera palaeosinensis was an early Pleistocene species from northern China. It is often incorrectly referenced as the ancestor of the tiger, Panthera tigris, although it shares features with all living large cats. Recent studies place it close to the base of the genus Panthera.
Panthera fossilis is an extinct species of cat belonging to the genus Panthera, known from remains found in Eurasia spanning the Middle Pleistocene and possibly into the Early Pleistocene.
Puma is a genus in the family Felidae whose only extant species is the cougar, and may also include several poorly known Old World fossil representatives. In addition to these potential Old World fossils, a few New World fossil representatives are possible, such as Puma pumoides and the two species of the so-called "American cheetah", currently classified under the genus Miracinonyx.
Simocyon is a genus of extinct carnivoran mammal in the family Ailuridae. Simocyon, which was about the size of a mountain lion, lived in the late Miocene and early Pliocene epochs, and has been found in Europe, Asia, and rarely, North America and Africa.
Acinonyx pardinensis, sometimes called the Giant cheetah, is an extinct felid species belonging to the genus Acinonyx, closely related to the cheetah, native to Eurasia during the Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs. It was substantially larger than the living cheetah.
Panthera zdanskyi is an extinct pantherine species, the fossils of which were excavated in Gansu Province, northwestern China. Due to its close relationship with the modern tiger, it is called the Longdan tiger.
Panthera blytheae is an extinct species of felid which lived during the Early Pliocene of Tibet. It has been initially suggested as the earliest known species of the genus Panthera, though its taxonomic placement has been disputed by other researchers who suggest that it likely belongs to a different genus.
Panthera shawi is an extinct prehistoric cat, of which a single canine tooth was excavated in Sterkfontein cave in South Africa by Robert Broom in the 1940s. It is thought to be one of the oldest known Panthera species in Africa.
Miopanthera is an extinct genus of Pseudaelurus-grade felids.
Panthera uncia pyrenaica, also known as the Arago snow leopard or the European snow leopard, is a subspecies of snow leopard that lived during the Middle Pleistocene in southern France.
Taowu is an extinct genus of machairodonts, a type of saber-toothed cat. It lived during the Early Pleistocene about 2.5 million years ago in East Asia. So far, only one skull is known, found in northern China. Based on this, a relatively small representative of the saber-toothed cats can be reconstructed, which only reached the size of a present-day leopard. In its dentition characteristics, it mediates between phylogenetic older forms such as Amphimachairodus and younger members such as Homotherium. The genus was scientifically described in 2022, but the find material was recovered as early as the 1930s.
Panthera principialis is an extinct species in big cat genus Panthera described in 2023 based on fragmentary Pliocene-aged fossils from Laetoli, Tanzania. As the species was the oldest known Panthera species at the time, it was given the specific epithet "principialis", from the Latin word meaning "initial, original, in the beginning".
Puma incurva is an extinct species in genus Puma. It was described based on fossils from the Early Pleistocene-aged Swartkrans site in South Africa.
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