| Wanhsien Tiger | |
|---|---|
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| A life restoration of Panthera tigris acutidens | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Family: | Felidae |
| Genus: | Panthera |
| Species: | P. tigris |
| Subspecies: | †P. t. acutidens |
| Trinomial name | |
| †Panthera tigris acutidens Hooijer, 1947 | |
| Synonyms | |
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Panthera tigris acutidens is the earliest known extinct subspecies of tiger, which is populated in almost the whole of Asia. On the islands of Indonesia , it has been supplanted by another extinct subspecies of tiger known as the Trinil Tiger(Panthera tigris trinilensis). In other parts of Asia, it had disappeared a little later, just after the emergence of the modern day South China Tiger (Panthera tigris amoyensis), which is probably its descendant. P. t. acutidens also sometimes called the antique tiger. Today his remains are in the National Museum of Natural History(Naturalis) in Leiden (Netherlands) in the collection of Eugene Dubois . East Asia, was probably the center of the origin of the subfamily Pantherinae.
The oldest tiger fossils indicate thatabout two million years ago, tigers were already quite common in this region. However, the glacial and interglacial climatic variations and other geological events caused repeated geographic changes in the area. According to current knowledge, the common ancestor of modern Tigers comes from the temporal parameters 157-72.000 years ago. This is much later than expected from a leopard, which is believed to be originated in Africa 825-470.000 years ago and arrived in Asia 300-170.000 years ago. Probably the earliest was a tiger known as Trinil tiger .
This tiger was the largest subspecies of Panthera tigris.It is not popular like the american lion or the smilodon populator but could be the largest natural cat of all time Its body weight of the predator reached 500 kg, and the height at the withers was 120 cm. According to the assumptions of the last of genetic research, the tigers have almost entirely disappeared at the end of the Pleistocene era, maybe around 10.000-12.000 years ago. The small remaining portion of the population survived, probably in the territory of modern China. Of tigers in the area again began to spread by migrating along the river after its prey - mainly deer and wild boars. Although the Tigers are all continental closely related and can be considered as regional populations, rather than separate subspecies, they have developed certain physical and morphological properties to adapt to environmental conditions.