Sinai leopard

Sinai leopard
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Felidae
Genus: Panthera
Species: P. pardus
Subspecies: P. p. jarvisi
Trinomial name
Panthera pardus jarvisi
Pocock, 1932

The Sinai leopard (Panthera pardus jarvisi) is a population used to be considered subspecies until 1996 from the Sinai peninsula.

Taxonomic and evolutionary history

The Sinai leopard has initially been described as a leopard subspecies under the scientific name Panthera pardus jarvisi by Pocock in 1932. Since the late 1990s, leopards were not recorded in Egypt any more.[1]

In the early 1990s, a phylogeographic analysis was carried out based on tissue samples from Asian and African leopards. The Sinai leopard was provisionally grouped with the Persian leopard (P. p. saxicolor), as tissue samples were not available.[2] Subsequent molecular biologists tentatively proposed in 2001 to group the Sinai leopard with the Arabian leopard (P. p. nimr), as again tissue samples were not available.[3]

References

  1. ↑ Spalton, J. A., Al Hikmani, H. M. (2006). The leopard in the Arabian peninsula – distribution and subspecies status. Cat News Special Issue 1: 4–8.
  2. ↑ Miththapala, S.; Seidensticker, J.; O'Brien, S. J. (1996). "Phylogeographic Subspecies Recognition in Leopards (P. pardus): Molecular Genetic Variation". Conservation Biology. 10 (4): 1115–1132. doi:10.1046/j.1523-1739.1996.10041115.x.
  3. ↑ Uphyrkina, O.; Johnson, E.W.; Quigley, H.; Miquelle, D.; Marker, L.; Bush, M.; O'Brien, S. J. (2001). "Phylogenetics, genome diversity and origin of modern leopard, Panthera pardus" (PDF). Molecular Ecology. 10 (11): 2617–2633. doi:10.1046/j.0962-1083.2001.01350.x. PMID 11883877.
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