Panthera tigris trinilensis

Extinct subspecies of carnivore

Panthera tigris trinilensis

Temporal range: Pleistocene

PreꞒ

A fossil found, thought to be of a Trinil tiger
Scientific classification
Domain:  | Eukaryota
Kingdom:  | Animalia
Phylum:  | Chordata
Class:  | Mammalia
Order:  | Carnivora
Suborder:  | Feliformia
Family:  | Felidae
Subfamily:  | Pantherinae
Genus:  | Panthera
Species:  |

P. tigris

Subspecies:  |

†P. t. trinilensis

Trinomial name
†Panthera tigris trinilensis

Dubois, 1908

Panthera tigris trinilensis, known as the Trinil tiger, is an extinct tiger subspecies. The Trinil tiger is known from remains dating from nearly 1.2 million years ago, which were found at the locality of Trinil, Java, Indonesia.[1] The fossil remains are now stored in the Dubois Collection of the National Museum of Natural History in Leiden, Netherlands. Although these fossils have been found on Java, the Trinil tiger is thought not to be a direct ancestor of the Javan tiger, and likely went extinct ca. 50,000 years ago. Additionally, the Bali tiger, also extinct, was also not closely related to the Trinil tiger due to the different time periods in which they were alive.[2]

The Trinil tiger lived in Indonesia, notably near Trinil, Java; according to some zoologists, this tiger could be the ancestor of all known Indonesian subspecies, with some speculating that this region of Southeast Asia was a potential epicenter of Pantherinae origin. The oldest tiger fossils found, dated to the early Pleistocene in Java, show that, around two million years ago, tigers were already quite widespread across mainland and insular East Asia. However, the glacial and interglacial climatic variations, among other geological events (notably, Indonesia’s location in a highly volcanically-active part of the planet) may have caused repeated geographic changes in the area.[3][4]

## Taxonomy[edit]

Much research has been done but there is not much knowledge about this subspecies. Scientists have discovered a fossil that is believed to belong to the Trinil tiger. However, there were doubts that the fossil could belong to the Trinil tiger because it was too big to belong to it. But now it is thought that it might have been a bit smaller than the Bengal tigers and similar to the Indochinese tiger's size.[2] Food competition among large carnivores is a major incentive to increase body weight, so that this Pleistocene subspecies's weight was slightly less than today's Bengal tigers and weighed about 110–150 kg (240–330 lb).[5]

## See also[edit]

* Bornean tiger
* Panthera tigris acutidens
* Panthera tigris soloensis
* Panthera zdanskyi

## Notes and references[edit]

### References[edit]

1. ^ Brongersma, Leo (1937). "Notes on fossil and prehistoric remains of "Felidae" from Java and Sumatra". Comptes Rendus du XIIe Congrès Internacional de Zoologie (Lisboa, 1935): 1855–1865.
2. ^ a b Eugène Dubois (1908). "Das geologische Alter der Kendengoder Trinil-Fauna". Tijdschrift van het Koninklijke Nedeerlandsch Aardrijkskundig Genootschap. 2 Series 24: 1235–1271.
3. ^ Leo Daniel Brongersma (1935). "Notes on some recent and fossil cats, chiefly from the Malay Archipelago". Zoologische Mededelingen. 18: 1–89.
4. ^ Helmut Hemmer (1971). "Fossil mammals of Java. II. Zur Fossilgeschichte des Tigers (Panthera tigris (L.)) in Java". Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen. Ser. B. 74 (1): 35–52.
5. ^ Hallett, M.; Harris, J. (2020). "4. Beyond the Distant Horizons". On the Prowl: In Search of Big Cat Origins. New York Chichester, West Sussex: Columbia University Press. pp. 77–108. doi:10.7312/hall18450-006.

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*[†]: Extinct
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