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Felidae

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For the novel by Akif Pirinçci, see Felidae (novel).

Felines
Tiger, the largest feline found in nature.
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Mammalia
Order:
Carnivora
Family:
Felidae

Subfamilies

Felinae
Pantherinae
Acinonychinae
Machairodontinae (NEDM)

The Felidae family includes lions, tigers, domestic cats, and other felines as its members. They are the most strictly carnivorous of the nine families in the order Carnivora. The first felids emerged during the Eocene, about 40 million years ago. The most familiar feline is the domestic cat or house cat (subspecies Felis silvestris catus), which first became associated with humans thousands of years ago. Its wild relative, the wild cat, still lives in Europe, Africa and western Asia, although habitat destruction has restricted its range. Whether domestic cats and wildcats should be classified as separate species remains controversial.

Other well-known members of the feline family include big cats such as the lion, tiger, leopard, jaguar, puma, and cheetah, and other wild cats such as the lynx, caracal, and bobcat. The extinct subfamily Machairodontinae, including the "saber-toothed cats" such as the well known Smilodon, were also true felines, in contrast to similar animals such as Thylacosmilus or Nimravidae. All felines, including the domestic cat, are superpredators that prey on creatures smaller than themselves.

There are 37 known species of felines in the world today which have all descended from a common ancestor of c. 10.8 million years ago. This species originated in Asia and spread across continents by crossing land bridges. As reported in the journal Science, testing of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA by Warren Johnson and Stephen O'Brien of the U.S. National Cancer Institute demonstrated that ancient cats evolved into eight main lineages that diverged in the course of at least 10 migrations (in both directions) from continent to continent via the Bering land bridge and Isthmus of Panama. The Panthera species are the oldest and the Felis species are the youngest. They estimated that 60 percent of the modern species of cats developed within the last million years.[1] Most felids have a haploid number of 18 or 19. New world cats (those in Central and South America) have a haploid number of 18, possibly due to the combination of two smaller chromosomes into one larger chromosome.[2]

Prior to this discovery, biologists had been largely unable to establish a family tree of cats from the fossil record because the fossils of different cat species all look very much alike, differing primarily in size.

The felines' closest relatives are thought to be the civets, hyenas, and mongooses. All feline species share a genetic anomaly that prevents them from tasting sweetness.[3]

Hybrids bred in captivity include the liger and the tigon. Ligers are larger than tigers.

Classification

Alternative classification

Genetic research gives a very different classification for the cat family:

Lineage 1: Panthera, Uncia, Neofelis
Lineage 2: Lynx, Pardofelis
Lineage 3: Puma, Herpailurus, Acinonyx , Catopuma (possibly)
Lineage 4: Leptailurus, Caracal, Profelis
Lineage 5: Leopardus, Oncifelis, Oreailurus
Lineage 6: Felis, Otocolobus
Lineage 7: Prionailurus, mayailurus

Yet later findings seems to indicate that the old classification was quite good, with the exception of Lynx, Prionailurus and Catopuma. These are transferred to the Pantherinae, while all other species (except the Cheetah) stays in the Felinae. Several genera (Caracal, Leptailurus, Profelis) have an unclear classification so there is not enough information to place them in an definite subfamily.

Fossil felines

The oldest known felines (Aelurogale, Eofelis) emerged in the Eocene. Better known is Proailurus, which lived in the Oligocene and Miocene eras. During the Miocene it gave way to Pseudaelurus. Pseudaelurus is believed to be the latest common ancestor of the three above-mentioned subfamilies and another subfamily, the Machairodontinae. This group, better known as the sabertooth cats, became extinct in the Late Pleistocene era. It includes the genera Smilodon, Machairodus, Dinofelis and Homotherium.

See also

Cited references

  1. ^ Mott, Maryann (January 11, 2006). "Cats Climb New family Tree". National Geographic News. Retrieved 2006-07-15.
  2. ^ Vella, Carolyn (2002). Robinson's Genetics for Cat Breeders and Veterinarians, 4th ed. Oxford: Butterworh-Heinemann. ISBN 0-7506-4069-3. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  3. ^ Xia, Li (July 2005). "Pseudogenization of a Sweet-Receptor Gene Accounts for Cats' Indifference toward Sugar". Public Library of Science. Retrieved 2006-07-15. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

General references

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