taxonomy

The first new cat species discovered in 100 yearsnationalgeographic.com

A new small wild cat species, *Leopardus tilcayo*, was identified in Bolivia after genomic analysis of a specimen first found in 2017. The study, published in *Current Biology*, shows the cat diverged from related tiger cats ~1.4 Myr ago and suggests many small‑cat taxa are cryptic species, with implications for conservation assessments.