• Question: Where did cats evolve from?

    Asked by Eugene to Deborah, Euan, Maheen, Rob, Stu on 17 Jun 2016.
    • Photo: Maheen Siddiqui

      Maheen Siddiqui answered on 17 Jun 2016:


      The evolution of the domestic house cat is not as straightforward as you might expect. Twenty-first century science has illuminated some aspects of domestication, but lineages remain murky. In short, all cats probably evolved from the prehistoric proailurus, which was either the last cat precursor or the first cat.

      Pseudaelurus was a prehistoric cat that lived in Eurasia and North America roughly 20 million years ago. The pseudaelurus had slender proportions and short legs, not unlike a weasel. It died out about 8 million years ago. In scientific literature it’s sometimes cited as the basal stock of the Felidae family. Its predecessor was the proailurus, which lived in Eurasia roughly 25 million years ago. The proailurus was slightly bigger than a domestic cat. It had a long tail and probably hung out in trees. Some scientists posit it as the basal stock of the Feliformia superfamily — this includes Felidae and similar animals — but other scientists dub it the first true felid.

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