Pantherinae is a subfamily within the family Felidae; it was named and first described by Reginald Innes Pocock in 1917 as only including the Panthera species. The Pantherinae genetically diverged from a common ancestor between and .
Characteristics
Pantherinae species are characterised by an imperfectly ossified hyoid bone with elastic tendons that enable their larynx to be mobile. They have a flat rhinarium that only barely reaches the dorsal side of the nose. The area between the nostrils is narrow, and not extended sidewards as in the Felinae.
The Panthera species have a single, rounded, vocal fold with a thick mucosal lining, a large vocalis muscle, and a large cricothyroid muscle with long and narrow membranes. A vocal fold that is longer than enables all but the snow leopard among them to roar, as it has shorter vocal folds of that provide a lower resistance to airflow; this distinction was one reason it was proposed to be retained in the genus Uncia.
Evolution
The Felidae originated in Central Asia in the Late Miocene; the subfamily Pantherinae diverged from the Felidae between and . Several fossil Panthera species were described: Panthera blytheae is the oldest known species that possibly lived about . Panthera palaeosinensis lived in the early Pleistocene around two to three million years ago in northern East Asia. Panthera zdanskyi is dated to . Panthera gombaszoegensis lived from about in Europe. Panthera youngi lived in the Pleistocene about in China. Panthera spelaea lived in Europe after the third Cromerian interglacial stage from about 450,000 to 14,000 years ago. Panthera atrox lived in North America during the Pleistocene and early Holocene about 340,000 to 11,000 years ago. Panthera shawi was a lion-like cat in South Africa that possibly lived in the early Pleistocene. Panthera balamoides lived in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, during the Pleistocene. An additional fossil genus Leontoceryx was described in 1938.
There is evidence of distinct markers for the mitochondrial genome for Felidae.
Results of a DNA-based study indicate that the tiger (Panthera tigris) branched off first, followed by the jaguar (P. onca), the lion (P. leo), then the leopard (P. pardus) and snow leopard (P. uncia).
Felis pamiri, formerly referred to as Metailurus, is now considered a probable relative of extant Pantherinae and was moved to the genus Miopanthera.
Taxonomy
Pocock originally defined the Pantherinae as comprising the genera Panthera and Uncia. Today, Uncia has been subsumed into Panthera, and the genus Neofelis is also included.
Living genera
The following table shows the extant taxa within the Pantherinae, grouped according to the traditional phenotypical classification.