IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Culver, M. | |
| DNA and the origin of North American pumas | |
| 2005 Wild Cat News (2005): 2 | |
The puma is one of the most geographically diverse species living today. It occupies the largest latitudinal range of any new world terrestrial mammal (110 degrees in latitude), as well as a large altitudinal range (from sea level to 14,800 feet above sea level). In the early 1900s, the puma (Puma concolor) was described with high subspecies diversity, with 32 distinctly named subspecies that were fairly evenly distributed throughout their broad geographical range. This assessment was based on morphology. Now with the application of molecular methods, the following conclusions can be made regarding subdivision and population genetics in pumas. 1) Pumas originated in the Brazilian Highlands approximately 300,000 years ago. 2) A possible extirpation and re-colonization has occurred in North America. The potential timing of this re-colonization event is subsequent to the most recent ice age which ended approximately 10,000 years ago. 3) Molecular data does not support 32 subdivisions for pumas; instead six subspecies-level groups are indicated. 4) Within these six groups pumas are fairly panmictic. |
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