The cat family can trace its history back 35 millions years.
Since then, many new species have emerged that have all shared certain catlike traits.
Today, there are 36 species of these amazing carnivores, including the domestic cat.
If you traveled back in time, to a forest of 35 million years ago, you would instantly recognize a Proailurus stalking along a branch as a cat.
An unusual breed, perhaps, but clearly it is a cat.
Proailurus is the cat from which all extinct and living cats of the family Felidae are believed to have arisen, and even that long ago, the traits that make all cats' superb predators were in place stabbing teeth, powerful jaws, flesh ripping claws, agile bodies with flexible limbs and excellent binocular vision.
Prosilurus appeared at a time of great evolutionary activity, in which today's carnivore families evolved from a group of creatures called miacids.
Miacids probably most resembled today's catlike civets and genets.
The diversified into two subgroups of carnivores, the New World branch comprising bears, dogs, raccoons, weasels, seals and sea lions, and the Old World branch consisting of cats, hyenas, mongooses and civets.
The 36 living cat species, from 600 pound tigers to 2.
5 pound black footed cats, share an ancestor that is similar to an ocelot, and call Pseudailurus, a descendent of Proailurus that lived in Eurasia between 10 and 15 million years ago.
From this ancestor, cats diversified and spread throughout the world, leaving only Australia and Antarctica without native cats.
Cats were among the most successful of all mammals in colonizing the earth.
Lions once occupied a larger area than any other mammal, from parts of South America, through North America, Asia, Europe and Africa.
Wild cats, the ancestors of domestic cats, found homes from the southern tip of Africa to the farthest reaches of Europe and Asia.
In the last 10,000 years, however, these magnificent predators have steadily lost ground to their only serious competitors, people, and we could see many species of cat become extinct in out lifetime.
Since then, many new species have emerged that have all shared certain catlike traits.
Today, there are 36 species of these amazing carnivores, including the domestic cat.
If you traveled back in time, to a forest of 35 million years ago, you would instantly recognize a Proailurus stalking along a branch as a cat.
An unusual breed, perhaps, but clearly it is a cat.
Proailurus is the cat from which all extinct and living cats of the family Felidae are believed to have arisen, and even that long ago, the traits that make all cats' superb predators were in place stabbing teeth, powerful jaws, flesh ripping claws, agile bodies with flexible limbs and excellent binocular vision.
Prosilurus appeared at a time of great evolutionary activity, in which today's carnivore families evolved from a group of creatures called miacids.
Miacids probably most resembled today's catlike civets and genets.
The diversified into two subgroups of carnivores, the New World branch comprising bears, dogs, raccoons, weasels, seals and sea lions, and the Old World branch consisting of cats, hyenas, mongooses and civets.
The 36 living cat species, from 600 pound tigers to 2.
5 pound black footed cats, share an ancestor that is similar to an ocelot, and call Pseudailurus, a descendent of Proailurus that lived in Eurasia between 10 and 15 million years ago.
From this ancestor, cats diversified and spread throughout the world, leaving only Australia and Antarctica without native cats.
Cats were among the most successful of all mammals in colonizing the earth.
Lions once occupied a larger area than any other mammal, from parts of South America, through North America, Asia, Europe and Africa.
Wild cats, the ancestors of domestic cats, found homes from the southern tip of Africa to the farthest reaches of Europe and Asia.
In the last 10,000 years, however, these magnificent predators have steadily lost ground to their only serious competitors, people, and we could see many species of cat become extinct in out lifetime.
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