|
FELIDAE
- For the novel by Akif Pirinçci, see Felidae (novel).
Lions, tigers, domestic cats, and other felines are members of the Felidae family. 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 between 7000 and 4000 years ago. Its wild relative, the wild cat, still lives in Africa and western Asia, although habitat destruction has restricted its range.
Other well-known members of the feline family include big cats such as the lion, tiger, leopard, jaguar, puma, and cheetah (which appears to be descended from the small cats), and other wild cats such as the lynx, caracal, and bobcat. All felines, the small domestic cat included, are superpredators capable of destroying almost any creature 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.
Felid-Hominid genetic similarity
Although the family Felidae is closely related to mongoose and hyaena, studies have found that they are, by genetic coincidence, the most closely related family to humans after primates. If one were to take the genetic sequence of a human and change a small percentage of the genes, it would be identical, depending on the changes, to the genetic sequence of a domestic cat, or a lion, or any cat in between. If one were, however, to change a human sequence to match a dog's, or a rodent's, the process would involve a far greater number of genetic changes.[4]
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
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
- ^ Mott, Maryann (January 11, 2006). Cats Climb New family Tree. National Geographic News. Retrieved on 2006-07-15.
- ^ Vella, Carolyn; et. al. (2002). Robinson's Genetics for Cat Breeders and Veterinarians, 4th ed.. Oxford: Butterworh-Heinemann. ISBN 0-7506-4069-3.
- ^ Xia, Li; et.al. (July 2005). Pseudogenization of a Sweet-Receptor Gene Accounts for Cats' Indifference toward Sugar. Public Library of Science. Retrieved on 2006-07-15.
- ^ O'Brien, Stephen J.; Antón, Mauricio, "The Family Line: The Human-Cat Connection", National Geographic Magazine, June 1997.
General references
|