Tigers: Scientific Classification

Click here for the updated InfoBook - Tigers.

Scientific Classification

A. Class--Mammalia.

B. Order--Carnivora.

The scientific order Carnivora includes cats, dogs, bears, raccoons, hyenas, otters, weasels, badgers, mongooses, and civets. All typical carnivores have well developed claws and a pair of specialized cheek teeth (carnassials) for slicing flesh.

C. Family--Felidae.

The cat family includes the small cats (genus Felis), the clouded leopard (genus Neofelis), the cheetah (genus Acinonyx), and the big cats (genus Panthera).

**D. Genus, species--Panthera tigris.**

1. There are five species in the genus Panthera: tigers (P. tigris), snow leopards (P. uncia), leopards (P. pardus), jaguars (P. onca), and lions (P. leo).

a. All Panthera cats have elastic sections on both sides of the hyoid bone, a structure which supports the tongue and its muscles.

(1) The elastic hyoid, combined with the fibroelastic tissue on top of the big cats' undivided vocal folds, acts like a slide trombone, enabling the big cats to roar. Only snow leopards, which lack the specialized vocal folds, are not able to roar.

(2) Because of the elastic hyoid, big cats can purr only when breathing out.

b. The hyoid of smaller cats is solid bone. These cats can purr when breathing both in and out, but they can't roar.

2. Tigers are divided into eight subspecies.

a. There are five living subspecies: Bengal tigers (P. t. tigris), Siberian or Amur tigers (P. t. altaica), Sumatran tigers (P. t. sumatrae), Indo-Chinese tigers (P. t. corbetti), and South China tigers (P. t. amoyensis).

b. Three subspecies are considered extinct: Caspian tigers (P. t. virgata), Javan tigers (P. t. sondaica), and Bali tigers (P. t. balica).

c. The subspecies can be distinguished by size, coloration, and distribution.

E. Ancestry.

1. Fossil evidence shows that catlike carnivores first appeared about 35 million years ago. These were the saber-tooth cats, which had long, daggerlike canine teeth. Saber-tooth cats became extinct less than a million years ago and belonged to a separate ancestral branch than modern cats.

2. Early modern cats appeared about 25 million years ago and had civet-like features.

3. Tigerlike cats appeared more than 2 million years ago. Tigers are believed to have originated in eastern Asia where some of the earliest fossils have been found. The eight subspecies developed over time as tigers spread to other regions.

SeaWorld/Busch Gardens Animal Information Database
www.seaworld.org / www.buschgardens.org