欧博From Wild to Domestic Animals
The domestic cat (Felis catus or Felis silvestris domesticus) is a small mammal belonging to the Felidae family. This is because the history of the cat is interconnected with the wild felines which still inhabit parts of our planet. It is currently believed all domestic cat breeds derived from the wild cat (Felis silvestris). More specifically, it is estimated that all felines share a common ancestor from the genus Miacis.
Miacis consists of the oldest known group of primitive carnivores that is currently known. From this group, all known carnivorous animals, including felines, are likely to have developed. The first cat ancestors would have been a similar size to a civet, with an elongated body and tail. They would have lived during the upper Cretaceous period about 60 million years ago.
Millions of years later, members of the Miacis genus began to develop morphological differences, i.e. their physical form began to change. This gave rise to various groups of carnivorous animals. Unfortunately, the fossil history of felines is not as well documented as other species such as canids. We still have a lot to discover about the history and evolution of domestic cats and other felines.
It has been assumed that the first species related to felids would have been Proailurus, a small tree-dwelling carnivorous animal which inhabited Europe about 40 million years ago. During the Oligocene period, the first felids were divided into two large groups: Nimravidae and Felidae. The latter contained Proailurus from which the extinct species closest to modern felines would eventually descend.This species was called Pseudaelurus which would have appeared for the first time around 20 million years ago, disappearing about 8 million years ago.
Subsequently, during the Miocene period which began about 23 million years ago, Pseudaelurus had already diversified significantly with its population beginning to expand to Africa and America. The specific morphological and genetic root of modern felines is likely to have started about 10 million years ago. This was when they separated from Pseudaelurus, having adapted to steppes and savannas were an abundance of food in the form of herbivorous animals could be found. In the same period, felines with long canine teeth would emerge before becoming extinct around 10,000 BCE.
However, small modern felines belonging to the genus Felis, such as wildcats, would take a little longer to inhabit the earth's surface. They first appeared around 5 million years ago on the Asian continent. Expansion across other continents would begin around the same period, although they would not reach Oceania or Madagascar..
In addition, several 2006 analyses of the sex chromosomes and mitochondrial DNA of different modern feline species, including the domestic cat, were carried out. Along with many paleontological studies, results suggest the genetic lineage which gave rise to domestic cats would have separated from other small cats around 3.4 million years ago. This likely occurred among the forests and deserts of the Mediterranean basin.
In the image below we can observe the recreation of a Pseudaelurus in a mural of the Smithsonian Institution museum in Washington, DC (USA).
