What is the evolutionary path of Panthera Pardus Orientalis (Amur Leopard)?

Answer 1

Hello Glendz,

What do you mean by this question? Would you mind elaborating?

Here is what a basic search of Amur leopard phylogeny reveals:

The Amur leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis) is a critically endangered subspecies of the leopard, phylogenetically closest to northern Chinese leopards, with which they now form a single genetic unit. As an Asian subspecies, they diverged from African lineages ~710,000 years ago, representing a distinct, cold-adapted lineage.

Key Aspects of Amur Leopard Phylogeny:

Classification:

Kingdom Animalia,

Phylum Chordata,

Class Mammalia,

Order Carnivora,

Family Felidae,

Genus Panthera.

Phylogenetic Position: The Amur leopard is part of the Asian clade of Panthera pardus. Genetic research indicates a close relationship between the Amur leopard (P. p. orientalis) and the North Chinese leopard (P. p. japonensis), leading to them being recognized as a single, combined population (often under P. p. orientalis).

Divergence: Molecular studies suggest that Asian leopards separated from African counterparts roughly 710 to 483 thousand years ago (kya).

Genetic Distinctness: The Amur leopard shows high genetic differentiation from African leopards. Within Asian populations, they exhibit specific haplotypes (labeled ORI1, ORI2).

Population History: The population in the Russian Far East and Northeast China is a relict of a larger northeastern Asian subspecies population that was historically distributed across the Korean peninsula and surrounding areas.

Conservation Genetics: Due to extreme population fragmentation in the 20th century, the Amur leopard has low genetic diversity.

(we call this a bottleneck)

Relationship to Other Species:

Phylogenetic analyses based on mitochondrial DNA confirm that the Amur leopard clusters closely with other Panthera species (such as tigers, lions, and snow leopards) within the subfamily Pantherina

Here's a figure I found for you

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Phylogenetic-relationships-among-the-individual-leopards-based-on-composite-genotype-of_fig1_10933273