Leopard broad diet, and strength (which it uses to move heavy carcasses into trees), as well as its ability to adapt to various habitats ranging from rainforest to steppe, including arid and montane areas, and its ability to run at speeds of up to . Fossil parts dating to the Late Pleistocene were excavated in Europe and Japan. The common name "leopard" () is a Greek compound of "leōn" ("lion") and "pardos" ("male panther"). The name reflects the fact that in antiquity, a leopard was believed to be a hybrid of a lion and a panther. The Greek word is related
Black panther can be littermates. It is thought that melanism may confer a selective advantage under certain conditions since it is more common in regions of dense forest, where light levels are lower. Recently, preliminary studies also suggest that melanism might be linked to beneficial mutations in the immune system. Data on the distribution of leopard populations indicates that melanism occurs in seven subspecies: Javan leopard ("P. p. melas"), African leopard ("P. p. pardus"), Indian leopard ("P. p. fusca"), Indochinese leopard ("P. p. delacouri"), Sri Lankan leopard ("P. p. kotiya"), Arabian leopard and Amur leopard ("P. p. orientalis"). Black leopards are common