The cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) is a wild cat found scattered around in small parts of Africa and Iran. It is famous for being the fastest land animal on the planet, able to reach speeds up to 75 miles per hour. There are five subspecies; four that are African and one that is Asian. According to a research paper titled The global decline of cheetah and what it means for conservation by Sarah M. Durant and her team, the cheetah’s historic range was most of Africa (excluding parts of central Africa, Egypt, and Madagascar) and the Middle East into India. Today, cheetahs have lost 98% of their range in Asia, and the Asian Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus venaticus) is critically endangered with an estimated 50 individuals. In Africa, the remaining four subspecies live only on 13% of the land they once inhabited, causing the Northwest African Cheetah subspecies (Acinonyx jubatus hecki) to also become critically endangered. As of 2014, the known cheetah population is about 6700 individuals over 29 subpopulations (Durant).
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In the second sentence you could cite your source by placing the article and author in parenthesis so it is a bit more organized.
Suggestion
Instead of using a common name then use a parenthases to introduce the genus and species. I think you can simply use only the scientific name since it is for a Biology course.
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According to a research paper titled The global decline of cheetah and what it means for conservation by Sarah M. Durant and her team, the cheetah’s historic range was most of Africa (excluding parts of central Africa, Egypt, and Madagascar) and the Middle East into India.
I dont think you need to include the full title of the research paper in the sentence ~makes it kinda awkward to read. Instead I would say, "According to Sarah M. Durant and her team, the cheetah's hsitoric range was most of Africa (excluding parts of central Africa, Egypt, and Madagascar) and the Middle East into India (INSERT CITATION OF RESEARCH PAPER).