This week I'll speak about some of the history of tigers, in their early days. Fossil records of tigers are not well known, but they are from the same genus as jaguars, lions and leopards. They have a common ancestor that lived about 5 million years ago. Just to make one point clear, the Smilodon, manly known has saber tooth tiger, is not related with the modern tiger or any cat, therefor, it is not an ancestor of any living feline.Some scientists believe that tigers evolved from lions, since they can interbreed and form hybrids, something I'll discuss next post. This fact is supported by the similarities observed by some biologists, where tigers interact in hunt groups, what is uncommon since tigers are manly solitary animals, acting like lions, when the population in high in some areas.
Another theory about the evolution of tigers is also connected to lions. Some scientist say some of the oldest fossils of lion ancestors can be the link where tigers and lions diverge. Since there is a gap in fossil history, where there haven't been found any fossils of any ancestor, it is hard to say which of the theories is corrected.
There are currently five living subspecies of tigers: the Royal Bengal, the Siberian tiger, the Indochinese, the Sumatran and the South China tiger which still exists in zoos. Three other subspecies, the Caspian, Balinese and Javan became extinct during the twentieth century, due to hunting.
Royal Bengal Tiger
Siberian Tiger
Indochinese Tiger
Sumatran Tiger
South China Tiger
