Panthera: The Evolution of the Big Cats

Please enjoy this video examining the evolutionary history of the Pantherine cats, from their humble origins in Late Miocene Asia to the lions, tigers and leopards of today.

All copyrighted images/footage/music is protected under Fair Use for reasons of criticism, commentary, social satire, and education.

Papers Referenced:

de Bonis, L.; Chaimanee, Y.; Grohé, C.; Chavasseau, O.; Mazurier, A.; Suraprasit, K.; Jaeger, J. J. (2023). "A new large pantherine and a sabre-toothed cat (Mammalia, Carnivora, Felidae) from the late Miocene hominoid-bearing Khorat sand pits, Nakhon Ratchasima Province, northeastern Thailand". The Science of Nature. 110 (5). 42. Bibcode:2023SciNa.110...42D. doi:10.1007/s00114-023-01867-4. PMID 37584870. S2CID 260901770.

Hemmer, H. (29 March 2023). "The evolution of the palaeopantherine cats, Palaeopanthera gen. nov. blytheae (Tseng et al., 2014) and Palaeopanthera pamiri (Ozansoy, 1959) comb. nov. (Mammalia, Carnivora, Felidae)". Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments. doi:10.1007/s12549-023-00571-5. S2CID 257842190.

Hemmer, Helmut (2023). "The identity of the "lion", Panthera principialis sp. nov., from the Pliocene Tanzanian site of Laetoli and its significance for molecular dating the pantherine phylogeny, with remarks on Panthera shawi (Broom, 1948), and a revision of Puma incurva (Ewer, 1956), the Early Pleistocene Swartkrans "leopard" (Carnivora, Felidae)". Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments. 103 (2): 465–487. doi:10.1007/s12549-022-00542-2.

Jiangzuo, Qigao; Wang, Yuan; Ge, Junyi; Liu, Sizhao; Song, Yayun; Jin, Changzhu; Jiang, Hao; Liu, Jinyi (2023). "Discovery of jaguar from northeastern China middle Pleistocene reveals an intercontinental dispersal event". Historical Biology. 35 (3): 293–302. doi:10.1080/08912963.2022.2034808. S2CID 246693903.

[fredbloggs]

I find it fascinating that leopards & jaguars look so similar, and yet are not that closely related (the leopard's closest-living relative is the African lion). They both even have a black variant! Convergent evolution at work, I guess.

[voodoojedizin]

Living in Colorado and actually being raised in the mountains I have seen several mountain lions and bobcats in the wild. And they are a sight to behold beautiful animals. I've watched mountain lions hunting antelope and running at incredible speeds. And I've seen bobcats a female, with her cubs playing together like they were house cats. Living in a city now we still get news alerts, about mountain lions being seen in neighborhoods, and even an occasional bobcat. One thing they say about Bobcats if you see one there's 10 more that you don't, their camouflage is incredible. I have had house cats for over 40 years and I think it comes from my childhood and the love and respect I had for the big cats.

[DemitriVladMaximov]

Always a joy to see your work featuring my friend Hondari's art. I'm so happy to see him get attention in educational content. Also, as someone who adores cats, this made my day.

[rl]

Great video, cats are some of the most incredible animals on planet, living or extinct. I really love how your channel covers really obscure animal groups, although admittedly this family is very well known. If I can make a suggestion, I’d love to see a video about Ostriches and their relatives. Ostriches are the most distantly related of the ratites, so I think it be interesting to cover their history. It would also shed some light on Pachystuthio, a giant, 12 foot tall ostrich. It’s such an interesting animal that doesn’t get much spotlight.

[Beryllahawk]

Fascinating to understand just how varied the "big cats" really are. I hadn't realized that Smilodon and other saber toothed cats WEREN'T direct ancestors of modern lions and so forth, so that was interesting too. I agree with the hope, too, that modern big cats will be granted a stay of execution, that we humans will succeed in being good stewards of the planet and all its incredible species.

[samdegoeij]

I love how he started with some shots of a tiger with the music by Jungle Book and carried that music throughout the video! Gave me instant nostalgia!

[benmcreynolds]

I was so fascinated to learn there were other types of saber toothed big cat's. As well as other awesome big cats from our past. It's gotta be in my top 5 favorite mammal groups

[Hellemokers]

So interesting that big cats, one of the most important carnivorous clade, is so young in evolution.

[TotallyACat]

14:40 - Don’t think I don’t see that Chainsaw-man Reference. Because I do.

[patrickmccurry]

So fascinating to realize just how young all those cat species are relatively speaking. For some reason, I always felt they were much older.

[niharg]

Great video as always and great to see the details about P. o. mesembrina, which usually gets totally ignore for P. o. augusta

[bencake]

"Hello everyone, Dr. Polaris here!"

And your evening is saved! 🤓👍

Thanks for uploading this amazing Video about 🐈‍⬛🦁🐅


Amazing and Dangerous lifeforms! 😯 😬

[Diloparker]

“The cats of the family felidae, hold a powerful place in the human collective consciousness.”

Both for better and for worse, if you know what I am referring to.

(Edit: I actually feel like I went too far, the more I let this comment sink in.)

[thedarkmasterthedarkmaster]

With this video you're covered I think every group of large cat like creatures in the fossil record.
It truly highlights the diversity of life

[josephclark]

Thank you!! I always enjoy the good Dr. Polaris’ videos. But this is an especially helpful episode, helping clear up the very confusing state of research on felid interrelationships.

[Turdfergusen]

I’m excited for that upcoming lemur episode. Great work as always. Cheers

[josesalinasmorales]

The jaguar is actually classified as Near Threatened.

[rogersmith]

Thank you for histories on big cats that is all too rarely covered or even acknowledged. My career was with the big cats, but a lot of your discoveries were not known to us then. Carry on, sir.

[kaijingarou]

I just hope Alexandra and the others are fine after standing up to all these big prehistoric cats. And the same for the big cats that stood up to Makima 😂

[LupinLovebites]

It seems weird that most of the images shows a savannah background, and indicates the hunting of large herbivores that are best on plains and hills, but a spotty jungle or forest coat on the cats.