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Did I miss where they said the basis on which they judged it to be a different species? Presumably DNA differences - would have been nice to see something abou

Did I miss where they said the basis on which they judged it to be a different species? Presumably DNA differences - would have been nice to see something about that. There's mention of wildcats interbreeding with house cats, so presumably ability to cross-breed isn't part of the "new species" calculation?

apetrovic 17d ago
> The small feline, about the size of a domestic moggy, went under the radar because it was confused with other wild cats that share similar spots and stripes. > But DNA studies show the cat is actually in a class of its own, highlighting how much remains unknown about some of the world's most elusive mammals.
technothrasher 17d ago
> so presumably ability to cross-breed isn't part of the "new species" calculation? Considering people have interbred jaguars and leopards, and then interbred the female cubs with lions to get a lijagulep, I'm not sure cross-breeding is the gold standard of speciation that gets sold as such in school. The greatest threat to some of these cat species (the Scottish Wildcat being a prime example) is loss of genetic differentiation through interbreeding with domestic cats.
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