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The tiger then evolved into a unique species towards the end of the Pliocene epoch, approximately 3.2 Ma. The ancestor of the lion, leopard, and jaguar split from other big cats from 4.3–3.8 Ma. Between 3.6 and 2.5 Ma, the jaguar diverged from the ancestor of lions and leopards. Lions and leopards split from one another approximately 2 Ma. [9]
A liger is the offspring between a male lion and a female tiger, which is larger than its parents because the lion has a growth maximizing gene and the tigress, unlike the lioness, has no growth inhibiting gene. [19] Tigon A tigon is the offspring of a female lion and a male tiger. [19] The tigon is not as common as the converse hybrid, the liger.
Panthera is a genus within the family Felidae, and one of two extant genera in the subfamily Pantherinae.It contains the largest living members of the cat family. There are five living species: the jaguar, leopard, lion, snow leopard and tiger, as well as a number of extinct species, including the cave lion and American lion.
The history of lion–tiger hybrids dates to at least the early 19th century in India. In 1798, Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1772–1844) made a colour plate of the offspring of a lion and a tiger. The name "liger", a portmanteau of lion and tiger, was coined by the 1930s. [4] "Ligress" is used to refer to a female liger, on the model of ...
The liger is the offspring of a female tiger and a male lion and the tigon the offspring of a male tiger and a female lion. [45] The lion sire passes on a growth-promoting gene, but the corresponding growth-inhibiting gene from the female tiger is absent, so that ligers grow far larger than either parent species.
The ancestors of P. gombaszoegensis are thought to have arisen in Africa; a related form of Panthera was present in South Africa 1.9 Ma ago. [10] Another form similar to P. gombaszoegensis has been found dating from early Pleistocene East Africa and had both lion- and tiger-like characteristics. [14]
In zoos, lions have been bred with tigers to create hybrids for the curiosity of visitors or for scientific purpose. [39] [40] The liger is bigger than a lion and a tiger, whereas most tigons are relatively small compared to their parents because of reciprocal gene effects. [41] [42] The leopon is a hybrid between a lion and leopard. [43]
For example, he believed that lions, tigers, leopards, and house cats might all have a common ancestor. He further speculated that the 200 or so species of mammals then known might have descended from as few as 38 original animal forms.