Cat Evolution................the potted version

The earliest ancestor of the cat evolved 200 million years ago from reptiles. All carnivores evolved from an extinct order of mammals called Creodonts who lived 50-60 million years ago. The creodonts were about the shoulder height of a domestic cat and were primitive fish eating mammals. The dental pattern of modern day cats is similar to that found in fossilised remains of creodonts.

 

At the same time, around 60 million years ago, another group of animals the miacids evolved.

The miacis was a weasel like animal who are believed to have evolved into the mammals of the order carnivora. The miacids had cat-like cutting teeth and these evolved into the carnivores of today - including some cats.

 

 

During the Paleocene period , 35-65 million years ago, the Miacids had split into two groups which were to become the cats and the dogs.

 

 

Proailurus was the first true cat. It lived around 30 million years ago and was smaller than the domestic cat.

 

Pseudaelurus is a prehistoric cat that lived 20 million years ago during the Miocene period.
Pseudaelurus is a successor to Proailurus and the ancestor of the modern cats.
Pseudaelurus was an agile wildcat to cougar sized feline that roamed Eurasia, Africa and North America. Their skeletons are very similar to that of the modern big cats. the slender proportion of the cat together with its short legs suggest it may have been a tree climber.

 

The Nimravids, similar to the sabre tooth cats, date back 35 million years ago but are long extinct.

 

 

Modern cats appeared 10.8 million years ago in South-east Asia.

There are 37 species of cat today from the Lion to the domestic cat and these are divided up into 8 lineages.
The ancestor of todays cats was a panther-like creature that evolved into the big cat family Panthera.
Panthera includes the lions, tigers, jaguars, leopards, snow leopards, clouded leopards and Bornean clouded leopard. All of the big cats roar with the exception of the two clouded leopard species.
Nine million years ago, the bat cat lineage evolved. Small to medium sized sized cats, the Bay Cats -  Asian Golden Cat, Borneo Bay Cat and marbled  are restricted to forested areas in South-east Asia.
The next branch emerged 8.5 million years ago with the caracals. The Caracal, African Golden Cat, and serval are all native to Africa. they have distinctive long legs and large ears.
At the same time the cats were travelling to the American continent.
Eight million years ago the ocelot family formed. The  ocelots - Geoffroy's cat, kodkod, tigrina, Andean Mountain cat, pampas cat, margay and ocelot inhabit central and South America.
A little over 7 million years, the lynx ancestor appeared in North America. The lynx all live in the northern temperate climates of Europe (Iberian Lynx), North Asia (Eurasian Lynx), and North America (Bobcat and Canada Lynx)
The puma lineage formed 6.7 million years ago and split into the puma (North and South America), jaguarondi (South America) and cheetah (Africa).
Six million years ago, the ancestors of the leopard cat arrived from America. The asian leopard cat, fishing cat, flat-headed cat, rusty-spotted cat and  Pallas cat would become the dominant cat lineage in Asia.
Finally, 3 million years ago emerged the felis family wildcats, sand cat, black-footed cat and jungle cat
The domestic cat  is descended from the African Wildcat. This was determined by sampling the DNA from domestic and wildcats.
The African wildcats main prey is small rodents like rats and mice. They were believed to have been domesticated over 5000 years ago by the Egyptians to control the rats and mice raiding their granaries