New Brazilian Wild Cat Species Revealed by Genetic Testing
A new species of wild cat has been identified in the jungles of Brazil, scientists reported Wednesday.
It is rare for new mammal species to be identified, and the conclusion that a population of wild cats known as tigrina was heretofore undocumented came only after a molecular analysis of the cats revealed that two populations of tigrina in Brazil do not interbreed and are evolutionarily distinct.
The research, published in the journal Current Biology, was led by Eduardo Eizirik from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
A new species of wild cat has been identified in the jungles of Brazil, scientists reported Wednesday.
It is rare for new mammal species to be identified, and the conclusion that a population of wild cats known as tigrina was heretofore undocumented came only after a molecular analysis of the cats revealed that two populations of tigrina in Brazil do not interbreed and are evolutionarily distinct.
The research, published in the journal Current Biology, was led by Eduardo Eizirik from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre, Brazil.