Project 898: Z. J. Tseng, X. Wang, G. J. Slater, G. T. Takeuchi, Q. Li, J. Liu, G. P. Xie. 2013. Himalayan Fossils of Oldest Known Pantherine Establish Ancient Origin of Big Cats. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 281:20132686.
Abstract
Pantherine felids (“big cats”) include the largest living cats, apex predators in their respective ecosystems. They are also the earliest-diverging living cat lineage, and thus are important for understanding the evolution of all subsequent felid groups. Although the oldest pantherine fossils occur in Africa, molecular phylogenies point to Asia as their region of origin. This paradox cannot be reconciled using current knowledge, mainly because early big cat fossils are exceedingly rare and fragmentary. Here we report the discovery of a fossil pantherine from the Tibetan Himalaya, with an age of late Miocene-early Pliocene, replacing African records as the oldest pantherine. A “total evidence” phylogenetic analysis of pantherines indicates that the new cat is closely related to the snow leopard, and exhibits intermediate characteristics on the evolutionary line to the largest cats. Historical biogeographical models provide robust support for the Asian origin of pantherines. The combined analyses indicate that 75% of the divergence events in the pantherine lineage extended back to the Miocene, up to seven million years earlier than previously estimated. The deeper evolutionary origin of big cats revealed by the new fossils and analyses indicate a close association between Tibetan Plateau uplift and diversification of the earliest living cats.Read the article »
Project DOI: 10.7934/P898, http://dx.doi.org/10.7934/P898
This project contains | Matrices |
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Download Project SDD File ![]() | Total scored cells: 881 Total media associated with cells: 0 Total labels associated with cell media: 0 |
Characters | |
Total characters: 81 Total characters with associated media: 12 Total characters with media with labels: 0 Total character states: 172 Total character states with associated media: 43 Total character states with media with labels:23 Total unordered/ordered characters:81/0 |
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MorphoBank Project 898
MorphoBank Project 898
- Creation Date:
10 March 2013 - Publication Date:
13 November 2013 - Project views: 67185
- Media downloads: 9
- Matrix downloads: 107
Authors' Institutions
- Page Museum - La Brea Tar Pits, Los Angeles
- National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution
- University of Alberta
- University of Southern California
- American Museum of Natural History
- Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, CAS
- Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
- Smithsonian Institution
- Gansu Provincial Museum
Members
member name | taxa ![]() |
specimens ![]() |
media ![]() | media notes | chars ![]() | character
| cell scorings (scored, NPA, "-") | cell
| rules ![]() | ||||||||||||||
Z. Jack Tseng Project Administrator | 12 | 20 | 59 | 8 | 81 | 1 | 81 | 60 | 19 | 881 (854, 0, 27) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||
Qiang Li Full membership ![]() | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 (0, 0, 0) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||
Juan Liu Full membership ![]() | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 (0, 0, 0) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||
Graham Slater Full membership ![]() | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 (0, 0, 0) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||
Gary Takeuchi Full membership ![]() | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 (0, 0, 0) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||
Xiaoming Wang Full membership ![]() | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 (0, 0, 0) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Taxonomic Overview for Matrix 'M1994' (12 Taxa)
taxon | unscored cells |
scored cells ![]() |
no cell support ![]() |
NPA cells |
"-" cells | cell images | labels on cell images |
member access |
[1] Leopardus pardalis Last Modified in 12/05/13 | 2 | 80 | 79 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 ![]() |
[2] Puma concolor Last Modified in 12/05/13 | 2 | 80 | 79 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 ![]() |
[3] Neofelis nebulosa Last Modified in 12/05/13 | 1 | 82 | 79 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6 ![]() |
[4] Panthera leo Last Modified in 12/05/13 | 0 | 82 | 81 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 ![]() |
[5] Panthera onca Last Modified in 12/05/13 | 0 | 81 | 81 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 ![]() |
[6] Panthera pardus Last Modified in 12/05/13 | 1 | 80 | 80 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 ![]() |
[7] Panthera tigris Last Modified in 12/05/13 | 0 | 82 | 81 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 ![]() |
[8] Panthera uncia Last Modified in 12/05/13 | 1 | 78 | 78 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 6 ![]() |
[9] Panthera blytheae Last Modified in 12/05/13 | 12 | 45 | 45 | 0 | 24 | 0 | 0 | 6 ![]() |
[10] Panthera atrox Last Modified in 12/05/13 | 24 | 57 | 57 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 ![]() |
[11] Panthera palaeosinensis Last Modified in 12/05/13 | 31 | 50 | 50 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 ![]() |
[12] Panthera spelaea Last Modified in 12/05/13 | 24 | 57 | 57 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 ![]() |
Project views 
type | number of views | Individual items viewed (where applicable) |
Total project views | 67185 | |
Project overview | 5081 | |
Matrix views | 3055 | Matrix landing page (2666 views); Morphology (389 views); |
Media views | 37382 | Media search (5074 views); M193707 (525 views); M193974 (526 views); M193705 (538 views); M193706 (513 views); M193760 (667 views); M193692 (534 views); M193975 (554 views); M193970 (506 views); M193971 (542 views); M193968 (509 views); M193976 (477 views); M193965 (532 views); M193983 (503 views); M193978 (506 views); M193977 (498 views); M193979 (474 views); M193980 (509 views); M193703 (650 views); M193704 (492 views); M193701 (520 views); M193697 (512 views); M193700 (521 views); M193793 (555 views); M193764 (549 views); M193762 (467 views); M193759 (565 views); M193761 (516 views); M193986 (843 views); M193987 (773 views); M193525 (547 views); M193693 (557 views); M193794 (515 views); M193690 (537 views); M193691 (529 views); M193694 (529 views); M193695 (567 views); M193696 (561 views); M193698 (506 views); M193763 (480 views); M193790 (540 views); M193791 (522 views); M193792 (517 views); M193795 (529 views); M193796 (505 views); M193797 (522 views); M193798 (539 views); M193966 (512 views); M193967 (495 views); M193972 (597 views); M193981 (555 views); M193982 (520 views); M193984 (559 views); M193985 (524 views); M193702 (524 views); M193708 (500 views); M193709 (486 views); M193969 (502 views); M193973 (563 views); M193988 (1093 views); |
Specimen list | 11217 | |
Taxon list | 4945 | |
Bibliography | 3574 | |
Documents list | 1931 |
Project downloads 
type | number of downloads | Individual items downloaded (where applicable) |
Total downloads from project | 470 | |
Matrix downloads | 107 | Morphology (107 downloads); |
Project downloads | 306 | |
Document downloads | 48 | Bayesian analysis command files for partitions (11 downloads); Supermatrix NEXUS file (9 downloads); MrBayes command files for total evidence dating analyses (6 downloads); TNT scripts for running Bootstrap and Jackknife resampling on different data partitions (9 downloads); MrBayes command files for node dating analyses (7 downloads); Files for phylogenetic analyses (1 download); Mesquite NEXUS files of data partitions (5 downloads); |
Media downloads | 9 | M193986 (1 download); M193987 (1 download); M193762 (1 download); M193525 (1 download); M193761 (1 download); M193965 (1 download); M193759 (1 download); M193693 (1 download); M193691 (1 download); |