Feline animals are unsurpassed hunters. They are rightly considered very dangerous and skillful predators. This is not surprising, because for wild cats hunting is the only way to survive in natural conditions. How often do we sometimes forget that the fluffy white cat that sleeps with us on the couch is a close relative of such dangerous and untamed animals like a tiger or a lion.
First cats
The Feline family begins its history in distant prehistoric times. About 70 million years ago, the era of dinosaurs ended on earth, and the first mammals came in their place. Evolution led to the division of animals into herbivores and predators. Both of them had to go a long way of development in order to survive to our times.
Miacids are a well-established branch of carnivorous animals that, according to scientists, appeared 65-34 million years ago. It is believed that they became the progenitors of all 11 families of carnivores that exist today (Dog, Cuny, Bear and others, including the Cat family of interest to us).
Myacids were small in size, had a long tail and short legs, which allowed them to easily move both on the ground and in the trees. Their development rightly allowed them to be considered the highest ancient predators.
The “real” ancient cat appeared about 25 million years ago, in size it corresponded to the modern lynx. Her name is pseudo-ailurus, the ability to move on the toes of the feet is considered an important feature of her development, so the beast has acquired the ability to silently sneak up on victims. Another important event in its evolution is the appearance of sharp fangs, characteristic of all cats.
It is from her that the modern Feline family comes from. In the following millennia, the ancient cat went through many stages of formation before it reached our times in its current form. Many of these forms could not stand the competition and disappeared from the face of the earth. Among them were saber-toothed tigers, extinct relatively recently - only 8 thousand years ago. Unfortunately, in our time, many predators of the cat family are at risk of extinction due to human faults. Because of the valuable fur, people have drastically reduced their populations.
Diversity
Truly diverse and motley feline family. Representatives have noticeable differences in habits, physiology, color and size. The smallest representative of the family is considered a rusty (spotted-red) cat.
Its maximum size reaches 48 cm (body length), the tail is 25 cm, and the weight of large males barely reaches 1.5 kg. Where can this small animal compete with the largest representative of cats - a tiger, whose weight reaches 300 kg and a length of 380 cm (including a tail of about 100 cm).
Common features
Despite such significant differences in size, there are a number of characteristics inherent in everyone who is part of the cat family. A photo of these animals shows that they have a graceful, proportionally folded body, slightly rounded head, located on a short neck, medium length paws with soft pads and tail, usually long.
There are several other important common features associated with the hunting life of the animal.
The structure of the teeth. All cats have long, sharp fangs that resemble slightly curved cones in shape. When bitten, they are capable of inflicting deep and even fatal wounds on them.
Sharp talons. No other predatory animal has such sharp claws as nature has endowed with the Feline family. Such a powerful tool helps the beast to easily climb trees, catch and hold its prey. And so that the claws do not blunt and do not deteriorate, cats are able to hide them in specially provided recesses. This, as well as the soft pad on the paws, allows the animal to move almost silently.
By the way, the cheetah is the only one in the family that does not have retractable claws, but this does not bother him, since it is they who help the beast to develop tremendous speed, performing the function of spikes (as on the shoes of athletes-runners).
Inconspicuous color. The color of cats is very diverse, but there is one thing inherent in it - the ability to camouflage in the familiar habitat of the animal. Whether it is the striped color of the tiger or the sand color of the lion - the color allows you to remain invisible when hunting.
Classification
The feline family is conditionally divided into two subfamilies: large and small cats, which, in turn, are divided into genera and species. In total there are 14 genera and 35-38 species (their number depends on the classification method). In general, it is rather difficult to separate, since the distinguishing features are often quite insignificant.
The subfamily of large cats includes only 3 genera, the remaining 11 are small cats. Oddly enough, the classification is not based on size at all, but on other morphological characters. Because of this, there are larger representatives in the subfamily of small cats than in the subfamily of large cats. For example, the puma related to small cats is larger than the leopard assigned to large cats.
Differences
One of the seemingly insignificant differences between the groups is the structure of the hyoid bone. In large cats, it consists of cartilage, while in small cats, this part of the base of the tongue is completely ossified. Perhaps it is because of this feature that the first cats are able to growl, and the second - to purr while inhaling and exhaling.
There are some differences in behavior. Big cats eat while lying down, while small cats sit or stand (remember your domestic cat).
Another difference is the shape of the pupil in bright light. In small cats, it becomes narrow, like a gap, while in large cats it narrows, but remains round.
As you can see, there are no significant differences between subfamilies.
Habitat
Cats are spread literally all over the planet. They are able to adapt to almost any terrain and climate. However, wild cats are absent on continents such as Australia and Antarctica. They are also not on such large islands as Greenland, Madagascar and New Guinea.
Both subfamilies are widespread in Russia, only nine species: snow leopard, Far Eastern leopard, Amur tiger, lynx, Bengal cat, house (reed cat), forest cat, steppe cat and manul.
That's all for today about the cat family. The photo, located just above, shows you the snow leopard (snow leopard) that lives in our country.