Pets and Animals: The evolution of cats is the topic of a fascinating report in the current (July 2007)...

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The evolution of cats is the topic of a fascinating report in the current (July 2007)...
July 18 2007 at 8:31 AM JCG (no login)
... issue of 'Scientific American' [www.SciAm.com]*. It shows how genomic DNA analyses have augmented more traditional investigative methods to unravel the mysteries of lineage of the nearly 40 surviving species of cats (felidae) in eight lineages in the world - ranging from the "great roaring cats" to small wild cats of all kinds to our beloved domestic cats (if they ever have been domesticated).

The article also traces the complex migrations of cat species around the world - apparently strongly driven by major cyclical fluctuations in sea level over the 10+ million years that the felidae have been in recognizable existence. It's reportedly only over the last 10,000 years that domestic cats have consorted with humans (presumably since we developed settled habitats and agriculture in the Neolithic).

The authors present some interesting statistics - there are estimated to be some 600 million domestic cats in the present world (which is about one cat for every 10 people on the planet). But it is feared that, despite their evolutionary success in spreading to all the continents and climatic regions of the earth, all the wild cat species may be doomed to eventual extinction - largely because of adverse human activity and loss of the cats' natural habitat.

[* O'Brien, SJ & Johnson, WE, The Evolution of Cats, Sci Am, 297(1), 68-75, July 2007.]

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Nothing Scientific about it but - Mr. Lake on Jul 20, 2007, 11:33 PM

I believe that all the cat family have innate feline patterns of behavior .. - JCG on Jul 24, 2007, 8:45 PM

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