百年来发现的首个猫科新物种

百年来发现的首个猫科新物种
The first new cat species discovered in 100 years

原始链接: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/meet-the-first-new-cat-species-discovered-in-100-years

发表在《当代生物学》（*Current Biology*）上的一项研究确认了一个新的猫科动物物种——蒂尔卡约猫（*Leopardus tilcayo*），这是百余年来首次发现此类物种。该物种最初被国家地理探险家保拉·诺加莱斯-阿斯卡伦兹（Paola Nogales-Ascarrunz）误认为是虎猫（*Leopardus tigrinus*），她近十年前在玻利维亚首次发现了这种动物。 2019年，在编写玻利维亚野生动物指南时，诺加莱斯-阿斯卡伦兹注意到她拍摄的猫科照片中，其独特的巨大玫瑰花斑与邻国巴西的虎猫不符。这一发现引发了一项为期多年的遗传学调查。通过与遗传学家爱德华多·艾齐里克（Eduardo Eizirik）和乔纳斯·莱斯克罗特（Jonas Lescroart）合作，诺加莱斯-阿斯卡伦兹证实，该动物是一个全新的物种，而非亚种或已知物种的重新分类。研究团队将其命名为蒂尔卡约猫（*Leopardus tilcayo*），以纪念当地玻利维亚居民代代相传的称呼。这一发现凸显了通过仔细观察和严谨的科学探究，仍能发现令人惊叹的生物多样性。

一种新的野生猫科动物——**蒂尔卡约虎猫**（*Leopardus tilcayo*）——已被正式确认，这是100年来首次发现的新猫科物种。这种小型猫科动物原产于玻利维亚，体重约3至4磅，当地人早已知晓其存在，但常将其与其他相似物种混淆。基因组分析证实，它是一个独立的物种，约在140万年前与近亲分化。这一发现引发了Hacker News上热烈的讨论。用户们不仅惊叹于这种动物的外观，还探讨了野生动物习性带来的挑战。评论者分享了驯服野生猫科动物之难，并指出即使是“可爱”的小猫也具备高效捕食者的本能。尽管这一发现被视为罕见的科学突破，但许多用户告诫不要试图将其当作宠物饲养，并强调了与未驯化的野生掠食者共同生活的固有危险。讨论贴甚至演变成了一场关于不同文化如何呼唤猫咪的全球调查，证实了“pspspsps”这种声音是一种令人惊讶的、跨文化的普遍现象。

原文

What she couldn’t know at the time was that this curious cat had a secret. It would become the first new species of felid (i.e. the cat family) discovered in over 100 years, according to a study published today in the journal Current Biology. What’s exciting is the discovery is not a validation of a species proposed in the distant past, nor a previously recognized subspecies raised to species status—which are both more commonly reported and important findings. No, this cat was something totally new to science.

At the time though, Nogales-Ascarrunz assumed the unusual cat was a member of the species Leopardus tigrinus. Sometimes called tigrinas, oncillas, tigrillos, or little spotted cats, this species was described back in 1775 from a single illustration of an animal seen in French Guiana and was subsequently presumed to exist across Central and South America, including, at the time, Bolivia.

National Geographic Explorer Paola Nogales-Ascarrunz stands near the cat she first encountered nearly a decade ago. She is co-author on a new paper that establishes it as a new species.

Fernando Faciole, National Geographic Society

But then in 2019, while she was preparing a booklet about Bolivia’s cat species, she realized the cat she’d photographed didn’t look like a guidebook reference photo from neighboring Brazil. Her tiger cat had rosettes that were much larger than the ones across the border. “This is so wrong,” she thought.

It would take another few years before Nogales-Ascarrunz developed her skills in genetic analysis to the point where she could investigate the mystery cat’s genome with any accuracy. Then, working with Eduardo Eizirik, a geneticist at Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil, and study co-lead author Jonas Lescroart from the University of Antwerp, the team was able to find its distinct place on the cat family tree.

In their paper, the researchers propose the cat should be known as Leopardus tilcayo, in honor of the word local people know it by. "We asked the local people, ‘Why do you call it tilcayo?’” says Nogales-Ascarrunz, who is herself from Bolivia. “And they said, ‘I don’t know! My grandpa called it tilcayo, so I call it tilcayo.” (The name does not appear to mean anything particular in Spanish or the Quechua language spoken in Bolivia.)

百年来发现的首个猫科新物种 The first new cat species discovered in 100 years

百年来发现的首个猫科新物种
The first new cat species discovered in 100 years