Description

All true cats, extant and extinct, are classified in the mammalian family Felidae. Panthera onca, commonly known as the jaguar, is an extant member of the felid subfamily Pantherinae, which is composed of the genera Neofelis (clouded leopard) and Panthera, which are represented by a number of extant and extinct forms. Other extant members of Panthera include Panthera leo (lion), Panthera pardus (leopard), Panthera tigris (tiger), and Panthera uncia (snow leopard). The subfamily Pantherinae is thought to have diverged from all other living cats about 16 million years ago (Zheng et al., 2014), making this lineage the oldest among the extant members of the family Felidae.