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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".
Results of phylogenetic research shows that the wild members of this genus evolved through sympatric or parapatric speciation, whereas the domestic cat evolved through artificial selection. [29] The domestic cat and its closest wild ancestor are diploid and both possess 38 chromosomes [ 30 ] and roughly 20,000 genes.
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.
Pseudaelurus is a prehistoric cat that lived in Europe, Asia and North America in the Miocene between approximately twenty and eight million years ago. It is considered to be a paraphyletic grade ancestral to living felines and pantherines as well as the extinct machairodonts (saber-tooths), and is a successor to Proailurus.
The Iberian lynx is one of the most endangered cat species in the world today. ©tony mills/Shutterstock.com The post The History and Evolution of Europe’s Wild Cats appeared first on A-Z Animals .
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).
Panthera shawi was a lion-like cat in South Africa that possibly lived in the early Pleistocene. [15] Panthera balamoides lived in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico during the Pleistocene. [16] Some researchers consider this species to be a bear instead. [17] [18] [19] An additional fossil genus Leontoceryx was described in 1938. [20]
Dinosaurs evolved from more primitive reptiles in the aftermath of Earth's biggest mass-extinction event caused by extreme volcanism at the end of the Permian Period about 252 million years ago.