Unlike the Cheetah (and like Pseudaelurus), the Clouded Leopard and the Jaguar have short radii and metacarpals. This increases the grasping strength of their arms – an adaptation for scaling trees and sinuous branches.
Two magnificent feline dynasties trace their origins to a common Pseudaelurus ancestor. One line bought the farm just 11,000 years ago, whilst the other continues to persist, if somewhat tenuously, in the present era.