Ferocious Felids: The Evolutionary Biology of Cats

The sabre-toothed cats of the Machairodontinae family were a widespread and morphologically diverse group of felids that roamed the earth from the Miocene to the Late Pleistocene. For millions of years the sabre-toothed cats were the dominant felid family, successfully occupying North and South America, Eurasia and Africa (Christiansen 2012). The cats of the Machairodontinae family were rather large and physically robust but it was their craniomandibular morphology which has caught the attention of evolutionary biologists and palaeontologists alike. The two large maxillary canines which extend from the upper jaw classify the Machairodontinae cats such as Smilodon fatalis as scimitar-toothed cats  (See figure 1.) in comparison to the extant conical-toothed cats ( Panthera tigris ) and the dirk-toothed feliforms ( Barbourofelis sp .). The canines are elongated , curved, slightly serrated and laterally flattened, with a jaw gape of approximately 100-130 degrees compared to the much short

Proailurus, as I mentioned in my first blog, is latin for 'first cat' because it is currently accepted as the first 'true cat' and thus the earliest felid known to modern science. Proailurus was a part of the Proailurinae subfamily which appeared around 35 million years ago and included three known species; P. lemanensis , P. bourbonnensis and P. major . P. lemanensis has the most extensive fossil record and is illustrated below in figure 1. Proailurus was a medium sized cat with similar dimensions to a modern bobcat. Although the dentition of Proailurus does differ to modern cats with slightly different dental topography and the reduction of certain elements, overall dental characteristics show a remarkable resemblance to living felids (Werdelin et. al. 2009). As seen in figure 1, the body structure of Proailurus also exhibits a great likeness to extant cats. The auditory bulla (the structure which houses the middle ear) and postcranium of P. lemanensis are the o

The cat family is one of the most recognisable carnivores on Earth, but its origins continue to be a subject poorly understood by scientists and hardly acknowledged by the public. The first carnivore to exhibit characteristics typical of a true cat appeared approximately 35 million years ago in the Oligocene era (Werdelin et. al. 2009). This ancestor, believed to be Proailurus  meaning 'first cat', would then give rise to four subfamilies: Machairodontinae, Pantherinae and Felinae (McKenna & Bell 2000). The two latter being the only extant subfamilies. From endemic species to invasive species, the Felidae family currently occupies almost every single continent. For example, the Bengal Tiger ( Panthera tigris ) and the Domestic Cat ( Felis catus ) are both from the Felidae family.   Every aspect of a cat's morphology and behaviour suggests that it is a superior predator with enduring adaptive abilities. The Felidae family possesses a relatively short phylogenetic history