Puma pardoides

Owen's panther
Skull
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Family:	Felidae
Genus:	Puma
Species:	P. pardoides†
Binomial name
Puma pardoides† (Owen, 1846)
Synonyms
Felis pardoides Owen, 1846 Panthera pardoides (Owen, 1846) Panthera schaubi Viret, 1954 Viretailurus schaubi (Viret, 1954)

Puma pardoides or Owen's panther is an extinct prehistoric cat, long regarded as a primitive species of leopard (genus Panthera). Recent work^[1] has shown that Panthera pardoides is actually the same species as Panthera schaubi, which is probably not a pantherine at all, but more properly classified as Puma pardoides.

Classification

Panthera schaubi or Viretailurus schaubi was historically often regarded as a basal member of the genus Panthera.^[2] However, recent work^[3][4] has shown that Viretailurus should actually be included in the genus Puma as a junior synonym of Puma pardoides. Fossils of this leopard-sized animal are around 2 million years old and were found in France.

References

1. Hemmer, H., Kahlike, R.-D. & Vekua, A. K. (2004). The Old World puma Puma pardoides (Owen, 1846) (Carnivora: Felidae) in the Lower Villafranchian (Upper Pliocene) of Kvabebi (East Georgia, Transcaucasia) and its evolutionary and biogeographical significance. Neues Jahrbuch fur Geologie und Palaontologie, Abhandlungen 233, 197-233.
2. A. Turner: The big cats and their fossil relatives. Columbia University Press, 1997. ISBN 0-231-10229-1
3. "Pumas of South Africa, cheetahs of France, jaguars of England", Tetrapod Zoology, referring to Hemmer et al. 2004
4. Hemmer, H., Kahlike, R.-D. & Vekua, A. K. (2004). The Old World puma Puma pardoides (Owen, 1846) (Carnivora: Felidae) in the Lower Villafranchian (Upper Pliocene) of Kvabebi (East Georgia, Transcaucasia) and its evolutionary and biogeographical significance. Neues Jahrbuch fur Geologie und Palaontologie, Abhandlungen 233, 197-233.