The genus Neofelis comprises two species, the Clouded Leopard

Clouded Leopard

The clouded leopard is a felid found from the Himalayan foothills through mainland Southeast Asia into China, and has been classified as vulnerable in 2008 by IUCN...

 (Neofelis nebulosa) and the Sunda Clouded Leopard (Neofelis diardi), which are classified as vulnerable

Vulnerable species

On 30 January 2010, the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species identified 9694 Vulnerable species, subspecies and varieties, stocks and sub-populations.-References:...

 by IUCN. Both species are listed on CITES Appendix I.

Characteristics

The genus is considered distinct because of the difference in skull structure compared to the other pantherine

Pantherinae

Pantherinae is the subfamily of the family Felidae, which includes the genera Panthera, Uncia and Neofelis.The divergence of Pantherinae from Felinae has been ranked between six and ten million years ago. DNA analysis suggests that the snow leopard Uncia uncia is basal to the entire Pantherinae and...

 species. They have the longest upper canine teeth

Canine tooth

In mammalian oral anatomy, the canine teeth, also called cuspids, dogteeth, fangs, or eye teeth, are relatively long, pointed teeth...

 of the living big cats

Felidae

Felidae is the biological family of the cats; a member of this family is called a felid. Felids are the strictest carnivores of the thirteen terrestrial families in the order Carnivora, although the three families of marine mammals comprising the superfamily pinnipedia are as carnivorous as the...

. Molecular studies suggest that while the genus does belong to the same clade

Clade

A clade is a group consisting of a species and all its descendants. In the terms of biological systematics, a clade is a single "branch" on the "tree of life". The idea that such a "natural group" of organisms should be grouped together and given a taxonomic name is central to biological...

 as the other big cats, it diverged from the genus Panthera

Panthera

Panthera is a genus of the family Felidae , which contains four well-known living species: the tiger, the lion, the jaguar, and the leopard. The genus comprises about half of the Pantherinae subfamily, the big cats...

relatively early in their evolutionary history, around five to six million years ago.

Distribution

Neofelis species are only found in Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...

. The Taiwan

Taiwan

Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

ese clouded leopard population is significantly diminished, and some believe they may no longer exist in this particular area, as the last reported sighting dates from 1983.

The Sunda clouded leopard used to be regarded as a subspecies of Neofelis nebulosa, but elevated by biologists to the rank of species in 2006.