G. garamantis, G. vivax and G. quadrimaculatus were previously assessed as separate species in the 2003 Red List, but are now included within Gerbillus nanus.

Gazella marica was formerly included in Gazella subgutturosa. DNA evidence revealed that these represent separate lineages (Wacher et al. 2010) and G. marica is now regarded as a separate, though closely related species. Hassanin et al. (2012) found that pairwise distances between G. cuvieri, G. leptoceros and G. marica were very low ((<) 1.5%) and suggested that G. leptoceros and G. marica should be regarded as subspecies of G. cuvieri. This would have significant implications for conservation and more research to further clarify the situation is a priority.

Taxonomy is currently under review by the IUCN SSC Cat Specialist Group (2014). Placed in the genus Felis according to genetic analysis (Johnson et al. 2006, O'Brien and Johnson 2007). Four subspecies have been classically described: F. m. margarita in North Africa, F. m. harrisoni in Arabia, F. m. thinobia in Central Asia and F. m. scheffeli in Pakistan (Sliwa 2013, Banfield et al. 2014), but genetic analysis is needed to confirm subspecific partitioning, especially in light of possible large gaps in the species distribution.

Juste et al. (2013) reassigned this taxon to the genus Rhyneptesicus Bianchi, 1917 based molecular phylogenetics. Four subspecies -“ R. n. nasutus (Southwest Pakistan, Afghanistan and Southeast Iran), R. n. matschiei (Southwest Arabia), R. n. pellucens (Iran and Iraq), and R. n. batinensis (Eastern Arabia including Oman and Saudi Arabia), are recognised (Benda and Gaisler 2015, Juste et al. 2013).

The Caracal has been classified variously with Lynx and Felis in the past, but molecular evidence supports a monophyletic genus. It is closely allied with the African Golden Cat (Caracal aurata) and the Serval (Leptailurus serval), having diverged around 8.5 mya (Janczewski et al. 1995, Johnson and O'Brien 1997, Johnson et al. 2006). Seven subspecies have been recognised in Africa (Smithers 1975), of which two occur in southern Africa: C. c. damarensis from Namibia, the Northern Cape, southern Botswana and southern and central Angola; and the nominate C. c. caracal from the remainder of the species' range in southern Africa (Meester et al. 1986). According to Stuart and Stuart (2013), however, these subspecies should best be considered as geographical variants.

In Europe, two subspecies are recognized: C. l. signatus (Iberia) and C. l. italicus (Italy, France and Switzerland). In Asia, two subspecies are recognized: C. l. pallipes (most of the Asian range from Israel to China) and C. l. arabs (Arabian peninsula). Furthermore, wolves of the Himalayan range have been proposed as a distinct subspecies (C. l. chanco). In North America, five subspecies are often recognized: C. l. arctos (Arctic wolf), C. l. lycaon (Eastern wolf), which Chambers et al. (2012) consider a distinct species, C. l. nubilus (Plains wolf), C. l. occidentalis (Northwestern wolf or Northern timber wolf), and C. l. baileyi (Mexican wolf). Note that this assessment follows Jackson et al. (2017) in regarding the Dingo, sometimes considered a subspecies of Grey Wolf (C. l. dingo), as a feral dog population derived from a domesticate, and hence as C. familiaris, along with all other free-ranging dogs.

The Committee on Taxonomy of the Society for Marine Mammalogy (Committee on Taxonomy 2016) provisionally lists the following subspecies: Balaenoptera musculus musculus (Linnaeus, 1758) - Northern Blue Whale (found in the North Atlantic and the North Pacific); B. m. intermedia (Burmeister, 1871) - Antarctic Blue Whale; B. m. indica (Blyth 1859) - Northern Indian Ocean Blue Whale; B. m. brevicauda (Ichihara, 1966) - Pygmy Blue Whale; and B. m. un-named subspecies - Chilean Blue Whale. The nominate subspecies B. m. musculus refers at least to the North Atlantic Blue Whale which was the basis for the first description of the species by Linnaeus. Animals in the North Pacific are similar in size and morphology to North Atlantic Blue Whales and are also regarded as B. m. musculus, pending a genetic comparison of these populations. The Antarctic form B. m. intermedia is distinguished by its large body size and Antarctic distribution in summer. The Pygmy Blue Whale B. m. brevicauda has a number of morphological characteristics that distinguish it from B. m. intermedia and B. m. musculus. It occurs in the Indian Ocean, excluding the Antarctic, from Africa and Madagascar across to Indonesia and Australia, and in the southwestern Pacific, including Tasmania and New Zealand. Blue Whales in the northern Indian Ocean have been tentatively assigned the name B. m. indica, but a clear distinction between B. m. indica and B. m. brevicauda has not yet been established. Blue Whales in the southeastern Pacific are intermediate in size between B. m. intermedia and B. m. brevicauda (Branch et al. 2007a) and are genetically differentiated from both groups (LeDuc et al. 2017). They are provisionally designated as an unnamed subspecies with the common name Chilean Blue Whales. Chilean Blue Whales are genetically most similar to Blue Whales in the northeast Pacific (LeDuc et al. 2017); investigations into the genetic and morphological distinction between these two groups are ongoing. The respective winter ranges of Blue Whales from the eastern South Pacific (Chilean Blue whales) and from the eastern North Pacific may overlap in the eastern equatorial Pacific but their breeding seasons are probably six months out of phase (LeDuc et al. 2017).