Pantherinae is a subfamily within the family Felidae; it was named and first described by Reginald Innes Pocock in 1917 as only including the Panthera species.[2] The Pantherinae genetically diverged from a common ancestor between 9.32 to 4.47 million years ago and 10.67 to 3.76 million years ago.[3][4]
Pantherinae species are characterised by an imperfectly ossified hyoid bone with elastic tendons that enable their larynx to be mobile.[2]They have a flat rhinarium that only barely reaches the dorsal side of the nose. The area between the nostrils is narrow, and not extended sidewards as in the Felinae.[5]
The Panthera species have a single, rounded, vocal fold with a thick mucosal lining, a large vocalis muscle, and a large cricothyroid muscle with long and narrow membranes. A vocal fold that is longer than 19 mm (0.75 in) enables all but the snow leopard among them to roar, as it has shorter vocal folds of 9 mm (0.35 in) that provide a lower resistance to airflow; this distinction was one reason it was proposed to be retained in the genus Uncia.[6][7]
Pocock originally defined the Pantherinae as comprising the genera Panthera and Uncia.[2] Today, Uncia has been subsumed to Panthera, and the genus Neofelis is also included.[8]
The following table shows the extant taxa within the Pantherinae, grouped according to the traditional phenotypical classification.[8] Estimated genetic divergence times of the genotypical pantherine lineage are indicated in million years ago (mya), based on analysis of autosomal, xDNA, yDNA and mtDNA gene segments;[3] and estimates based on analysis of biparental nuclear genomes.[4]
The Felidae originated in Central Asia in the Late Miocene; the subfamily Pantherinae diverged from the Felidae between 14.45 to 8.38 million years ago and 16.35 to 7.91 million years ago.[3][4] Several fossil Panthera species were described: