Cats are a kind of crazy animal!
They have all kinds of personalities and appearances, but they have common characteristics engraved in their bones.
Genetic Research analysis shows that the DNA of "modern domestic cats" distributed around the world is almost the same as that of the primitive wild cats (Felis sylvestris lybica) native to northern Africa.
, and wild cats from Europe, Central Asia and southern Africa have different degrees of genetic non-correlations with modern domestic cats.
In other words, this wild cat native to northern Africa (such as Egyptian ) is the direct ancestor of modern domestic cats.
Northern Africa Primitive Wildcats: The appearance is similar to domestic cats, but the fur is slightly lighter (more sandy)
However, except for domestic cats, felines are a large family.
Traditionally, five subfamilies were distinguished in the feline family according to phenotypic characteristics: leopard subfamily , feline family, detent subfamily, saber-toothed tiger subfamily (extinct) and the proto-gold subfamily.
If you have a simple classification, the feline family can be divided into three genera:
· Panthera : generally those roaring felines, such as lions, tigers, leopards , snow leopards , clouded leopards and Jaguar .
· Cheetah genus : Cheetah.
·Female : Generally refers to all other "small" cat animals.
The distant ancestor of felines
The cats we refer now are actually just one of the cats.
This suborder may have begun to differentiate approximately 35 million years ago.
For example, felines and Asian lins are usually considered close relatives .
Asian Linsan
And they began to differentiate approximately 31.9 million years ago.
The earliest cats may have appeared about 28.5 million years ago.
Found cat fossil
Proailurus is the oldest known feline animal , which existed after the Eocene- Oligocene extinction event about 33.9 million years ago.
Their fossils have been found in present-day France and Mongolia.
Prehistoric giant teeth cat
and subsequent fossil evidence shows that felines have arrived today's North American about 18.5 million years ago.
For example, in the early Eocene, there was an early specialized cat hunter in North America.
is called fake cat (Pseudaelurus) because their fossils have their own unique characteristics of .
(called fake cat does not mean that it is not a feline)
Fake cats have long been believed to exist only in North America and later found in the Asia-Europe and Africa continent.
Pseudaelurus fossil
Portrait of fake cat
Later, fake cat animals became extinct until late Miocene .
Now it is believed that European (metailurus) (an animal similar to saber-toothed tiger ) and scepter-toothed tiger (hopeineinae) may be its descendants .
, and 6-8 million years ago, later cats are widely distributed in present-day Africa and Eurasian .
This group has exaggerated canine teeth, which makes it a top predator.
American saber-toothed tiger fossil
Saw-toothed tiger
And the American saber-toothed tiger animals that we know more about lived 2.5 million years ago.
, a pity, this subfamily became extinct in the Pleistocene of in the evening of .
The ancestors of modern cats came from Qinghai-Tibet Plateau
. Then, compared with the fake cat population, the late real cat population slowly appeared on the historical stage .
is called a real cat because the direct ancestors of the existing feline animals all come from it.
According to the tracing analysis of mitochondrial DNA, real cats originated from near the Himalayas in China in the late Miocene.
Panthera blindeae: about 59,500-4,100,000 years ago
Real cat is considered to be the origin of the modern tiger of , and real cats have evolved from two branches of the cat clan and the leopard clan.
For example, do you see the figure of the snow leopard in the picture above? It is located on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (their descendants).
In the past 11 million years, in special environments such as low sea level, interglacial period and ice age, the real cat population has carried out at least 10 migration waves.
Then they came to Africa, Europe and the Americas.
European leopard
European leopard is the earliest known leopard , living in Europe about 195 to 1.77 million years ago.
Attached a classification diagram of feline animals. You can distinguish the kinship relationships of existing feline animals by yourself:
History of domestic cat domestication
The earliest records of modern domestic cats we are familiar with are 7,200-7,500 years.
It is excavated near a Neolithic human grave from , south of Cyprus .
Since the fossil is located on an island and there are no native mammals in the area, it is speculated that they and other wild mammals are likely brought to the island from the Middle East continent.
Therefore, scientists believe that African wild cats were early human settlements that were attracted by rodents ( mouse ) to Crescent Fertile .
Then, it was tamed by Neolithic farmers.
Of course, has another view, which is that African wildcats are tamed is not an active behavior of humans.
Because cats are too agile, it is too costly to deliberately restrain themselves and tame them.
It lives with humans because humans have some contribution to their control of house mice and choose to tolerate it.
Then, over the years of history, it slowly developed into today's situation.
It is worth mentioning that there is evidence that 5,500 years ago, Chinese ancestors independently domesticated a kind of ocelot .
It’s a pity that their genetic information has never been seen in modern domestic cats (including Chinese local cats).
Because in the process of human beings domesticating wild cats, the cat's anatomy and behavior have undergone extremely slight changes,
In other words, domestic cats can still survive in the wild. Although the cats in captivity may show affectionate behavior to humans, they are not domesticated.
Household cats often mated with wild cats and can produce hybrids.
and We now see common pet cat breeds, which are actually that started in the middle of the 19th century.
We know by analyzing the genome of pet cats.
During the domestication process, the wild cat genome from its ancestors changed significantly.
. It is precisely because of this deliberate purebred choice that cats show more than 20 harmful genetic diseases .
