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The jaguar (Panthera onca) is a large species of cat and the only living member of the genus Panthera native to the Americas. With a body length of up to 1.85 metres (6 ft 1 in) and a weight of up to 96 kilograms (212 lb), it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the third-largest in the world. The distinctively marked coat features pale yellow to tan fur covered by spots that transition to rosettes on the sides, although a melanistic black coat appears in some individuals. Its powerful bite allows it to pierce the carapaces of turtles and tortoises, and to employ an unusual killing method: it bites directly through the skull of mammalian prey between the ears to deliver a fatal blow to the brain. This male South American jaguar was photographed in the Encontro das Águas State Park, in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso.Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp