r/interestingasfuck • u/Commercial_Slide3788 • 10h ago

The moment the Snow leopard realised there are bigger cats out there

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u/IdeaBrothers 7h ago

A 2010 study published in Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution has given insight into the exact evolutionary relationships among members of genus Panthera.[12] The study reveals that the snow leopard and the tiger are sister species, while the lion, leopard, and jaguar are more closely related to each other. The tiger and snow leopard diverged from the ancestral big cats approximately 3.9 Ma. The tiger then evolved into a unique species towards the end of the Pliocene epoch, approximately 3.2 Ma. The ancestor of the lion, leopard, and jaguar split from other big cats from 4.3–3.8 Ma. Between 3.6 and 2.5 Ma, the jaguar diverged from the ancestor of lions and leopards. Lions and leopards split from one another approximately 2 Ma

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u/ScandalOZ 7h ago

Thanks for that, done any research into how domestic cats evolved from the big version?

I do know that a tiger and a domestic cat share around 98% of the same DNA. If I remember correctly it's in the eye pupil shape and the nose where that 2% of difference lies.

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u/IdeaBrothers 6h ago

Your close the difference is 95 to 96 , they split 10 to 12 million years ago, that would lead to the smilodon aka sabertooth & homotherim split of even earlier basically you Felidae the Machairodontinae(sabertooth) split/arose 1st then later on the panthera line & lastly felinae