Pages

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

New Species of Large Cats Discovered

Large Cat Species Discovered : Scientists have discovered that two populations of tigrina previously thought to be one species do not, in fact, interbreed and thus are distinct, according to results published today in Current Biology.
“So much is still unknown about the natural world, even in groups that are supposed to be well-characterized, such as cats,” says the study’s lead author, Eduardo Eizirik of Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil.
“In fact, there are many basic aspects that we still don’t know about wild cats, [including] their precise geographic distribution and their diets.”
Eizirik’s results have implications for conservation efforts—particularly laws about poaching and the designation of national parkland. Such measures are often focused on individual species.
Recognizing the northeastern tigrina as distinct means that biologists will have to assess its conservation status and determine what steps need to be taken so that both species of tigrina can be adequately protected.
Ancient Interbreeding
Eizirik and colleagues weren’t looking to discover a new species. Instead, they were looking to understand the evolutionary history of what were thought to be three species of cat from the genus Leopardus:
The Pampas cat (Leopardus colocolo) looks like a large, heavy-set, long-haired house cat. It lives in the grasslands and scrublands of South America, from southern Argentina and Chile up through Peru and Ecuador along the western third of the continent.
Geoffroy’s cat (Leopardus geoffroyiis roughly the same size as the Pampas cat, with a brownish-yellow or gray coat, black spots on its trunk, and dark bands across its tail and limbs. Like the Pampas cat, Geoffroy’s cat likes scrublands and lives throughout Argentina.
The tigrina (Leopardus tigrinus), also known as the oncilla or little spotted cat, lives throughout much of Central and South America. With a yellow-brown coat and black rosettes, the tigrina looks like a house cat-sized leopard. Scientists had previously identified four sub-populations of tigrina, including the southern tigrina, which lives primarily in Brazil’s mountainous forests, and the northeastern tigrina, which lives in savannahs and grasslands. The coat of the northeastern tigrina is slightly lighter, and the rosettes are sightly smaller, than those of its southern relative. 
Eizirik and colleagues obtained DNA samples from a total of 216 different Leopardus cats across their ranges. Analysis of the DNA sequences found in the mitochondria, the cell’s power plant, revealed ancient interbreeding between the Pampas cat and the northeastern tigrina.
Since an individual only inherits mitochondrial DNA from its mother, researchers could peer into the ancient history of these two felines, and found that they mated together frequently before the two cats split into separate species.
Although the Geoffroy’s cat and the southern tigrina divided into separate species over a million years ago, they began to mate together in the more recent past in the areas of southern Brazil and Bolivia where their habitats overlap. While the two cats interbreed regularly at this contact zone, the mating doesn’t extend to farther areas and the two species remain distinct.

7 comments:



  1. WORLD BEST 2017 SPELL CASTER ONLINE PROPHET OYINBO

    My name is CAROL WILLIAMS. Me and my boyfriend were together for 8 months & its been 6 months since we separated. I still love him, but some how feel its unfair. Why love someone who ovb doesnt love you back? Ive prayed & prayed for these months & nothing. He is still with his new girlfriend(whom he lives with) but it doesnt mean I have to look for help The first weeks after the break up I was in my knees praying looking for help, them i fine a comment online how a spell caster help to restored relationship get ex lover back, ” so i decided to give a try coz i love my boyfriend so much. so i contacted PROPHET OYINBO and told him all my problem and he gave me 100%guarantee that i will have my boyfriend back after the spell so i was gifted and lucky to have contacted him i did everything he asked of me and to my greatest surprise a day after the spell, my boyfriend called me and apologised for what he did to me and ask for my forgiveness to come back home for me, I got really hurt & go through those moments in which he left me, after all PROPHET OYINBO did for me, i forgave him and he came back home with more love and happiness all thanks to PROPHET OYINBO the real Africa spell caster so far google recommended this year.. So plz, if you need any help contact him too on this. You will see in conclusion you have to just trust the process, PROPHET OYINBO is a good real spell caster so call him up on +2348074066640 or email him on his email adress prophetoyinbojesus@gmail.com or you can call him at +2348074066640

    ReplyDelete
  2. PRIEST ODUNGA AT ODUNGASPELLTEMPLE@GMAIL.COM DID A FAITHFUL SPELL ON MY CHEATING SPOUSE.

    Monica and I used to be best friends, and sometimes even lovers. We sang together in church for almost 10 years. I knew that she would go out on Friday nights and hook up with guys either in downtown Raleigh, or at Applebees in Knightdale. Her first husband  dumped her after about a year of marriage. Then about 4 years ago she married some guy she met online, an air force pilot, and moved down to Texas. Imagine my surprise when I stopped by the house one afternoon when I was supposed to be at work and saw my husband’s car and some strange car in the driveway. I snuck in and found them in our bed. Neither one saw me at the door, so I snuck back out without telling them. Later that night I even found dome sexy pictures of her on my husband’s phone. What a way to find out my friend had moved back to North Carolina, and now lives in Goldsboro. I contacted Priest Odunga at odungaspelltemple@gmail.com who helped me put a faithful spell on my husband. Not up to 3 days later, my husband came to me confessing how he has been sleeping with her for more than 8 months and how he bought her the new car which parked in our driveway the day I found out. I was happy with Priest Odunga. He is well reliable. I would advise anyone who need their husband back to Email this man at odungaspelltemple@gmail.com OR contact his WHATSAPP at +2348167159012

    ReplyDelete