Cat Evolution

The felids argon a rapidly evolving family of mammals that voice a public ancestor solely 1015 million long time agone,26 and imply, in addition to the interior(prenominal) help blare, lions, tigers, cougars, and many a(prenominal) others. Within this family, interior(prenominal) help fatheads (genus Felis goofballus) are carve up of the genus Felis, which is a group of small cats containing or so seven species (depending upon classification scheme). 127 Members of the genus are effectuate worldwide and include the jungle cat (Felis chaus) of southeast Asia, European groundlesscat (F. silvestris silvestris), African wildcat (F. s. lybica), the Chinese mountain cat (F. bieti), and the Arabian sand cat (F. argarita), among others. 28 both the cats in this genus share a common ancestor that probably lived around 67 million years ago in Asia. 29 The exact relationships within the family Felidae are close solely so far uncertain,3031 e. g. the Chinese mountain cat is some times classified (under the relieve oneself Felis silvestris bieti) as a subspecies of the wildcat, like an African variety F. S. lybica. 430 As home(prenominal) cats are little altered from wildcats, they can promptly get across. This hybridization poses a danger to the contagious distinctiveness of wildcat populations, particularly in Scotland and Hungary, and possibly as well as the Iberian Peninsula. 32 The domestic cat was first classified as Felis catus by Carolus Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae in 1758. 13 However, because of modern phylogenetics, domestic cats are now usually regarded as another subspecies of the wildcat, Felis silvestris. 1433 This has resulted in mixed usage of the terms, as the domestic cat can be called by its subspecies wee, Felis silvestris catus. 1433 Wildcats have similarly been referred to as various subspecies of F. catus,33 just now in 2003 the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature fixed the name for wi ldcats as F. ilvestris. 34 The most common name in use for the domestic cat remains F. catus, following a linguistic rule for domesticated animals of using the earliest (the senior) equivalent word proposed. 34 Sometimes the domestic cat has been called Felis domesticus35 or Felis domestica,1 as proposed by German naturalist J. C. P. Erxleben in 1777, but these are not valid systematic names and have only seldom been used in scientific literature,36 because Linnaeuss binomial takes precedence. 37 Cats have either a mutualistic or commensal relationship with humans.However, in comparing to dogs, cats have not undergone major changes during the jejunity process, as the form and behavior of the domestic cat are not radically different from those of wildcats, and domestic cats are short capable of surviving in the wild. 3839 This special evolution during domestication means that domestic cats tend to interbreed freely with wild relatives,32 which distinguishes them from other do mesticated animals. citation needed Fully domesticated house cats also often interbreed with feral F. atus populations. 25 However, several natural behaviors and characteristics of wildcats whitethorn have pre-adapted them for domestication as pets. 39 These traits include their small size, social nature, obvious physical structure language, love of play, and relatively high cognition401217 they may also have an inborn tendency towards tameness. 39 in that location are two main theories around how cats were domesticated. In one, people deliberately tamed cats in a process of mawkish selection, as they were useful predators of vermin. 41 However, this has been criticized as implausible, because in that respect may have been little avenge for such an effort Cats generally do not carry out commands and, although they do eat rodents, other species such as ferrets or terriers may be part at controlling these pests. 4 The alternative conception is that cats were simply tolerated by people and gradually diverged from their wild relatives through natural selection, as they adapted to hunting the vermin show around humans in towns and villages. 4