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Feliform evolutionary timeline. All modern carnivorans, including cats, evolved from miacoids, which existed from approximately 66 to 33 million years ago.There were other earlier cat-like species but Proailurus (meaning "before the cat"; also called "Leman's Dawn Cat"), which appeared about 30 million years ago, is generally considered the first "true cat".
Feral cats are domestic cats that were born in or have reverted to a wild state. They are unfamiliar with and wary of humans and roam freely in urban and rural areas. [ 186 ] The numbers of feral cats are not known, but estimates of the United States feral population range from 25 to 60 million. [ 186 ]
Cat species vary greatly in body and skull sizes, and weights: The largest cat species is the tiger (Panthera tigris), with a head-to-body length of up to 390 cm (150 in), a weight range of at least 65 to 325 kg (143 to 717 lb), and a skull length ranging from 316 to 413 mm (12.4 to 16.3 in).
The ancestors of these modern felines are thought to have evolved just under 10 million years ago. Believed to be larger than the species we recognize today, Europe’s cats would have inhabited ...
A 2006 investigation into cat fossils The wide distribution and wide evolutionary variances between these species have made reasonable taxonomy difficult for researchers.
This study showed that African wildcat (F. s. lybica) included domesticated cats and that wild cats from this group are almost indistinguishable from domesticated cats. [5] Along with DNA analysis, phylogenetic studies were also conducted to narrow down the evolutionary history. Phylogenetic trees were generated based on mitochondrial DNA analysis.
An enigmatic bipedal creature called Nyasasaurus from Tanzania, known from fragmentary fossils perhaps dating to 240–245 million years ago, represents what the earliest dinosaurs may have looked ...
Blue is the range of Felinae (excluding the domestic cat), green is the range of Pantherinae. Felidae is a family of mammals in the order Carnivora, colloquially referred to as cats. A member of this family is called a felid. [1] [2] The term "cat" refers both to felids in general and specifically to domestic cats.