The jaguar (Panthera onca) is an animal with a prominent association and appearance in the cultures and belief systems of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican societies in the New World, similar to the lion (Panthera leo) and tiger (Panthera tigris) in the Old World. The jaguar was an animal with a profound symbolic importance within the cosmovision of the Aztecs. They called it ocelotl and associated the animal with the night, black magic, and god of darkness, Tezcatlipoca.