Leopard to Sanskrit ("snake", "tiger" or "panther"), and probably derives from a Mediterranean language, such as Egyptian. The name was first used in the 13th century. Other vernacular names for the leopard include graupanther, panther and several regional names such as "tendwa" in India. The term "black panther" refers to leopards with melanistic genes. A term for the leopard used in Old English and later, but now very uncommon, is "pard". The scientific name of the leopard is "Panthera pardus". The generic name "Panthera" derives from Latin via Greek πάνθηρ ("pánthēr"). The term "panther", whose first recorded use dates back to
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