Panthera facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Panthera Temporal range: Pliocene–Present PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N
From top to bottom: tiger, lion, jaguar, leopard, snow leopard
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Suborder:	Feliformia
Family:	Felidae
Subfamily:	Pantherinae
Genus:	Panthera Oken, 1816
Type species
Felis pardus (= Panthera pardus) Linnaeus, 1758
Species
†Panthera atrox (Leidy, 1853) †Panthera balamoides Stinnesbeck et al., 2019 †Panthera dhokpathanensis Bakr, 1986 †Panthera fossilis (Reichenau, 1906) †Panthera gombaszoegensis (Kretzoi, 1938) Panthera leo (Linnaeus, 1758) Panthera onca (Linnaeus, 1758) †Panthera palaeosinensis (Zdansky, 1924) Panthera pardus (Linnaeus, 1758) †Panthera principialis Hemmer, 2023 †Panthera shawi (Broom, 1948) †Panthera spelaea (Goldfuss, 1810) Panthera tigris (Linnaeus, 1758) Panthera uncia (Schreber, 1775) †Panthera youngi Pei, 1934 †Panthera zdanskyi Mazák, Christiansen & Kitchener, 2011
Synonyms
About 10 Jaguarius Severtzov, 1858 Leo Frisch, 1775 Leonina Greve, 1894 Leoninae Wagner, 1841 Pardotigris Kretzoi, 1929 Pardus Fitzinger, 1868 Tigrina Greve, 1894 Tigrinae Wagner, 1841 Tigris Gray, 1843 Tigris Frisch, 1775

Panthera is a group of large cats. It belongs to the cat family called Felidae. This group includes the biggest living cats on Earth. There are five living species in the Panthera genus: the jaguar, leopard, lion, snow leopard, and tiger. Many other species, like the cave lion and American lion, are now extinct.

Panthera species have unique features. Their skulls are usually flat or slightly rounded on top. The area between their eyes is not very high. Also, the back part of their skull slopes gently.

What Does Panthera Mean?

The word panther comes from an old Ancient Greek word. It was pánthēr in Ancient Greek. Later, it became panthēra in Classical Latin.

How They Roar

All Panthera cats have a special hyoid bone in their throat. This bone is not fully hardened. They also have a unique larynx (voice box). It has large, strong vocal folds. These features allow them to make a loud sound called a roar.

The snow leopard is the only exception. It cannot roar like the others. Its vocal folds are shorter, only about 9 millimeters long. This makes it harder for them to produce a roar.

Other Sounds They Make

Panthera cats can also prusten. This is a soft, snorting sound. They use it when they greet friendly cats. The roar is a very loud call. Its sound pattern is different for each species.

How Panthera Cats Evolved

Scientists are not sure where Panthera cats first appeared. The oldest known Panthera species is Panthera principialis. Its fossils were found in Tanzania.

Early Cat Ancestors

Genetic studies show that big cats like Panthera separated from smaller cats. This happened between six and ten million years ago. The clouded leopard is a close relative. It split off about 8.66 million years ago.

The Panthera group itself split from other cats about 11.3 million years ago. Then, the different Panthera species evolved. The tiger appeared about 6.55 million years ago. The snow leopard came about 4.63 million years ago. The leopard evolved about 4.35 million years ago.

Extinct Relatives

Fossils suggest the American lion (P. atrox) is related to the Eurasian cave lion. They separated about 0.34 million years ago. Both are closely related to modern lions. The snow leopard is also closely related to the tiger.

The extinct species Panthera gombaszoegensis was likely related to the modern jaguar. Its first fossils were found in Italy. They date back 1.6 million years.

How Panthera Cats Are Classified

Lorenz Oken first named the Panthera group in 1816. He put all spotted cats in this group. Over time, many different types, or "races," were suggested.

Modern Classification

In 1916, Reginald Innes Pocock reviewed the group. He classified it to include the tiger (P. tigris), lion (P. leo), jaguar (P. onca), and leopard (P. pardus). He based this on features of their skulls.

Later, genetic studies showed that many lion and leopard types were very similar. So, scientists grouped them together. For example, all African leopard populations are now P. p. pardus.

In 2008, the snow leopard (once called Uncia uncia) was officially moved into the Panthera genus. It is now called P. uncia.

Black Panthers

A black panther is not a separate species. It is a melanistic (dark-colored) version of a leopard or jaguar. They have extra dark pigment in their fur.

Living Panthera Species

Here are the main living species of Panthera:

Extinct Panthera Species

Many Panthera species are now extinct. Here are some notable ones:

Species and subspecies	Where and When They Lived	Notes	Images
Panthera atrox	North America, 130,000 to 13,000 years ago.	Also known as the American lion. It was one of the largest Panthera species. It became extinct around 13,000-12,000 years ago.
Panthera fossilis	Europe and Asia, 680,000 to 250,000 years ago.	An extinct lion species. It was one of the largest Panthera species. Scientists think it was an ancestor of the cave lion.
Panthera gombaszoegensis	Europe, possibly Asia and Africa, 2 million to 350,000 years ago.	Often called the "European jaguar." It might be an ancestor of the living jaguar.
Panthera spelaea	Much of Eurasia, 600,000 to 13,000 years ago.	Commonly known as the cave lion or steppe lion. It is closely related to the modern lion. It became extinct around 14,500-14,000 years ago.
Panthera onca augusta	North America	This extinct jaguar may have lived in temperate forests.
Panthera onca mesembrina	South America	This extinct jaguar may have lived in grasslands.
Panthera pardus spelaea	Europe	This extinct leopard was closely related to Asian leopard types.

Family Tree of Panthera Cats

Scientists use genetic research and fossil studies to understand how Panthera species are related. This helps them create a family tree, or phylogenetic tree.

See also

In Spanish: Panthera para niños

• Panthera hybrid
• Panther (legendary creature)