Leopard the 13th century AD, generally refers to the leopard, and less often to the cougar and the jaguar. Alternative origins suggested for "Panthera" include an Indo-Iranian word meaning "white-yellow" or "pale". In Sanskrit, this could have been derived from पाण्डर "pāṇḍara" ("tiger"), which in turn comes from पुण्डरीक "puṇḍárīka" (with the same meaning). The specific name "pardus" is derived from the Greek ("pardos") ("male panther"). The leopard is one of the five extant species of the genus "Panthera", which also includes the jaguar ("P. onca"), the lion ("P. leo"), the snow leopard ("P. uncia") and the tiger ("P. tigris"). This
Leopard only eight subspecies and subsumed "P. p. ciscaucasica" to "P. p. tulliana", and "P. p. japonensis" to "P. p. orientalis". The last common ancestor of the genera "Panthera" and "Neofelis" is believed to have occurred about 6.37 million years ago. The clouded leopard was the first to diverge from the rest of the "Panthera" lineage, followed by the snow leopard. The genus "Panthera" is believed to have emerged in Asia, from where they subsequently emigrated to Africa. The tiger-snow leopard clade diverged from the rest of "Panthera" around 2.9 million years ago. Johnson and colleagues suggest that the leopard diverged