Sardinian Lynx
Encyclopedia
The Sardinian Lynx is an extinct
Extinction
In biology and ecology, extinction is the end of an organism or of a group of organisms , normally a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point...

 subspecies
Subspecies
Subspecies in biological classification, is either a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, ora taxonomic unit in that rank . A subspecies cannot be recognized in isolation: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or two or more, never just one...

 of the Eurasian Lynx
Eurasian Lynx
The Eurasian lynx is a medium-sized cat native to European and Siberian forests, South Asia and East Asia. It is also known as the European lynx, common lynx, the northern lynx, and the Siberian or Russian lynx...

 that once could be found on the Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 island of Sardinia
Sardinia
Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[],...

.

In 1908, Pasquale Mola described a lynx
Lynx
A lynx is any of the four Lynx genus species of medium-sized wildcats. The name "lynx" originated in Middle English via Latin from Greek word "λύγξ", derived from the Indo-European root "*leuk-", meaning "light, brightness", in reference to the luminescence of its reflective eyes...

 from Nuoro
Nuoro
Nuoro is a city and comune in central-eastern Sardinia, Italy, situated on the slopes of the Monte Ortobene. It is the capital of the Province of Nuoro. With a population of 36,443 Nuoro is a city and comune (municipality) in central-eastern Sardinia, Italy, situated on the slopes of the Monte...

 (Sardinia) as Lynx sardiniae. The length of the Sardinian Lynx was 1 m; the height 35 cm and the tail 33 cm. The cheeks were distinctly whisker
Whisker
Whisker may refer to:* an element of box plots* cat's whisker diode, a thin wire used as a contact on a crystal radio receiver* facial hair, hair on the face of a human* vibrissa, a hair on the face of a mammal, used for sensing the surroundings...

ed and the ears were tufted. The back was reddish with the dorsal area almost forming a band. The sides were reddish grey. The head, neck and shoulder, and flanks with reddish brown or greyish brown spots. The legs had transverse tawny stripes. The tail had a black tip and three black sub-terminal rings. This subspecies had also a head with black stripe on each side beginning at the mouth and passing back through the eye to the side of the neck. The ears were tawny inside and reddish outside, tending towards black. The underparts and inner surface of the legs are dirty white with a reddish tinge. They competed for food with the Sardinian Dhole
Sardinian Dhole
The Sardinian Dhole Cynotherium sardous was an endemic insular canid, that occurred on the Italian island of Sardinia and the French island of Corsica . It became extinct when humans began to settle on the island.When this canid became confined to the island, it faced a menu consisting of small and...

, a canid living with the lynx.
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