Cat Evolution

The felids are a rapidly evolving family of mammals that share a putting green ancestor only 1015 million eld ago,26 and include, in addition to the interior(prenominal) shed, lions, tigers, cougars, and many others. Within this family, domestic cats (genus Felis catus) are incision of the genus Felis, which is a group of small cats containing approximately seven species (depending upon classification scheme). 127 Members of the genus are put in worldwide and include the jungle cat (Felis chaus) of southeast Asia, European fauna (F. silvestris silvestris), Afri force out ludicrouscat (F. s. lybica), the Chinese mountain cat (F. bieti), and the Arabian sand cat (F. argarita), among others. 28 All the cats in this genus share a general ancestor that probably lived around 67 million years ago in Asia. 29 The exact relationships within the Felidae are belt up exclusively still uncertain,3031 e. g. the Chinese mountain cat is sometimes separate (under the name Felis silvestri s bieti) as a subspecies of the loosecat, like an African variety F. S. lybica. 430 As domestic cats are little altered from wildcats, they can readily interbreed. This hybridization poses a danger to the genetic distinctiveness of wildcat populations, particularly in Scotland and Hungary, and possibly withal 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, beca commit of modern phylogenetics, domestic cats are now ordinarily regarded as another subspecies of the wildcat, Felis silvestris. 1433 This has resulted in mixed fashion of the terms, as the domestic cat can be called by its subspecies name, Felis silvestris catus. 1433 Wildcats pee also been referred to as various subspecies of F. catus,33 but in 2003 the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature set the name for wildcats as F. ilvestris. 34 The most common name in use for the domestic cat re i mportants F. catus, following a convention for domesticated animals of using the earliest (the senior) synonym 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 taxonomic names and go through only rarely been used in scientific literature,36 because Linnaeuss binomial takes precedence. 37 Cats have either a mutualistic or commensal relationship with humans.However, in likeness to dogs, cats have not undergone major changes during the domestication process, as the form and fashion of the domestic cat are not radically different from those of wildcats, and domestic cats are perfectly capable of surviving in the wild. 3839 This limited exploitation during domestication means that domestic cats tend to interbreed freely with wild relatives,32 which distinguishes them from other domesticated animals. citation needed Fully domesticated house cats also a g reat deal 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 body language, love of play, and relatively high intelligence401217 they may also have an inborn tendency towards tameness. 39 There are two main theories about how cats were domesticated. In one, people deliberately tamed cats in a process of artificial selection, as they were useful predators of vermin. 41 However, this has been criticized as implausible, because there may have been little reward for such(prenominal) an effort Cats generally do not carry out commands and, although they do eat rodents, other species such as ferrets or terriers may be better at dictatorial these pests. 4 The alternative idea is that cats were simply tolerated by people and gradually diverged from their wild relatives through natural selection, as they ad apted to hunting the vermin found around humans in towns and villages. 4