Evolution Big Cat Family Tree

These ancient cats evolved into the eight main lineages of the felidae cat family tree with most modern cats appearing in the past five million years.

Evolution big cat family tree.

The term cat refers both to felids in general and specifically to the domestic cat felis catus. Reginald innes pocock revised the classification of this genus in 1916 as comprising the species tiger p. We reveal how they evolved. There are three subfamilies found within the canid family which are the extinct borophaginae and hesperocyoninae and the extant caninae.

Twenty first century science has illuminated some aspects of domestication but lineages remain murky. But advances in the study of dna have made it possible to construct the first clearly resolved family tree for cats. The oldest cat lineage is the big roaring cats of the panthera lineage that split from this common ancestor 10 8 mya. Panthera is a genus within the family felidae that was named and described by lorenz oken in 1816 who placed all the spotted cats in this group.

From latin canis dog is a biological family of dog like carnivorans a member of this family is called a canid. The evolution of the felidae cat family began about 25 million years ago. The family felidae to which all living feline species belong arose about ten to eleven million years ago this family is divided into eight major phylogenetic lineages. A number of investigations have shown that all domestic varieties of cats come from a single species of the felis lineage felis catus.

Felidae is a family of mammals in the order carnivora colloquially referred to as cats and constitutes a clade a member of this family is also called a felid. In short all cats probably evolved from the prehistoric proailurus which was either the last cat precursor or the first cat. The caninae are known as canines which includes domestic dogs wolves foxes and other extant and extinct. Felidae species exhibit the most diverse fur pattern of all terrestrial carnivores.

The dna evidence shows that all living cats trace back to a pantherlike predator that lived. Cats have retractile claws slender muscular. The term big cat is typically used to refer to any of the five living members of the genus panthera namely tiger lion jaguar leopard and snow leopard except the snow leopard these species are able to roar a more liberal and expansive definition of the term includes species outside of panthera including the cougar clouded leopard sunda clouded leopard cheetah and sometimes the. Ancient cat may reshape feline family tree by kelly servick nov.

We discover how the first cats arose in the forests of asia how they spread across the continent and later came to conquer africa. Onca and leopard p. The domestic cat is a member of the felis lineage. The evolution of the domestic house cat is not as straightforward as you might expect.

12 2013 7 15 pm the world s first big cats may have arisen millions of years earlier than previously thought.