Initially mentioned as a snow leopard specimen under study by Hemmer (2003), the holotype mandible was interpreted by other paleontologists as a leopard fossil or a similar pantherine (
Panthera cf.
pardus or
Panthera sp.) prior to 2022. In 2022, Hemmer examined the cast of the holotype and suggested that it represents a subspecies of the modern snow leopard, so he named the taxon as
P. u. pyrenaica and attributed the colloquial names "European snow leopard" and "Arago snow leopard". However, the 2025 study which described another possible European paleosubspecies (
P. u. lusitana) discovered in Portugal, recovered
P. u. pyrenaica outside the modern snow leopard as
P. pyrenaica due to the lack of similar traits, though it may be a basal related species, and claimed that its primitive traits are likely
symplesiomorphic with the modern
leopard instead. The same study also assigned an
Early Pleistocene specimen from Longdan (Linxia Basin) of
China as
P. aff.
pyrenaica, and the traits observed in both specimens might indicate that this taxon is likely less adapted to the cold environment and hunting
caprines on the mountains. In the same year, Prat-Vericat and colleagues proposed that both
P. u. pyrenaica and the aforementioined Portuguese taxon indicate either the migration of snow leopards into Europe due to the
Mid-Pleistocene Transition (the so-called "0.9 Ma Event"), or the convergent evolution of European leopards to adapt into rocky habitats that caused their resemblance to the modern snow leopard. ==References==