Panthera principialis

Panthera principialis
Temporal range: Pliocene
~
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Felidae
Genus: Panthera
Species:
†P. principialis
Binomial name
†Panthera principialis
Hemmer, 2023

Panthera principialis is an extinct species in the big cat genus Panthera that was described in 2023 based on fragmentary Pliocene-aged fossils from Laetoli, Tanzania. As the species was the oldest known Panthera species at the time, it was given the specific epithet "principialis", from the Latin word meaning "initial, original, in the beginning".

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