Felidae

This article is about the biological family. Not to be confused with Felidae (film); Felidae (novel); or Felid, Iran.
"Wild cat" redirects here. For other uses, see Wild cat (disambiguation).

Felidae[2]
Temporal range:
Oligocene–Present, 30.8–0 Ma[1]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Suborder: Feliformia
Superfamily: Feloidea
Family: Felidae
Fischer von Waldheim, 1817
Type genus
Felis
Genera and Subfamilies
The native distribution and density of extant felid species.

Felidae (/ˈfɛlɪdiː/) is the family of mammals in the order Carnivora colloquially referred to as cats. A member of this family is also called a felid (/ˈfiːlɪd/).[3][4][5][6]

The 41 extant Felidae species exhibit the greatest diversity in fur patterns of all terrestrial carnivores.[7] Cats have retractile claws, slender muscular bodies and strong flexible forelimbs. Their teeth and facial muscles allow for a powerful bite. They are all obligate carnivores, and most are solitary predators ambushing or stalking their prey. Wild cats occur in Africa, Europe, Asia and the Americas. Some wild cat species are adapted to forest and savanna habitats, some to arid environments, and a few also to wetlands and mountainous terrain. Their activity patterns range from nocturnal and crepuscular to diurnal, depending on their preferred prey species.[8]

Reginald Innes Pocock divided the extant Felidae into three subfamilies: the Pantherinae, the Felinae and the Acinonychinae, differing from each other by the ossification of the hyoid apparatus and by the cutaneous sheaths which protect their claws.[9] This concept has been revised following developments in molecular biology and techniques for the analysis of morphological data. Today, the living Felidae are divided into two subfamilies: the Pantherinae and Felinae, with the Acinonychinae subsumed into the latter. Pantherinae includes five Panthera and two Neofelis species, while Felinae includes the other 34 species in 12 genera.[10]

The first cats emerged during the Oligocene about 25 million years ago, with the appearance of Proailurus and Pseudaelurus. The latter species complex was ancestral to two main lines of felids: the cats in the extant subfamilies and a group of extinct "saber-tooth" felids of the subfamily Machairodontinae, which range from the type genus Machairodus of the late Miocene to Smilodon of the Pleistocene. The "false saber-toothed cats", the Barbourofelidae and Nimravidae, are not true cats but are closely related. Together with the Felidae, Viverridae, hyenas and mongooses, they constitute the Feliformia.[11]

  1. ^ "Felidae". paleobiodb.org. Archived from the original on 2021-07-11. Retrieved 2021-07-04.
  2. ^ Wozencraft, W. C. (2005). "Felidae". In Wilson, D. E.; Reeder, D. M. (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 532–548. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
  3. ^ Salles, L. O. (1992). "Felid phylogenetics: extant taxa and skull morphology (Felidae, Aeluroidea)" (PDF). American Museum Novitates (3047). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-04-18. Retrieved 2017-04-17.
  4. ^ Hemmer, H. (1978). "Evolutionary systematics of living Felidae – present status and current problems". Carnivore. 1: 71–79.
  5. ^ Johnson, W. E.; Dratch, P. A.; Martenson, J. S.; O'Brien, S. J. (1996). "Resolution of recent radiations within three evolutionary lineages of Felidae using mitochondrial restriction fragment length polymorphism variation". Journal of Mammalian Evolution. 3 (2): 97–120. doi:10.1007/bf01454358. S2CID 38348868.
  6. ^ Christiansen, P. (2008). "Evolution of skull and mandible shape in cats (Carnivora: Felidae)". PLOS ONE. 3 (7): e2807. Bibcode:2008PLoSO...3.2807C. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0002807. PMC 2475670. PMID 18665225.
  7. ^ Peters, G. (1982). "Zur Fellfarbe und -zeichnung einiger Feliden". Bonner Zoologische Beiträge. 33 (1): 19−31.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference WCoW was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Pocock, R. I. (1917). "The classification of the existing Felidae". Annals and Magazine of Natural History. Series 8. XX (119): 329–350. doi:10.1080/00222931709487018.
  10. ^ Kitchener, A. C.; Breitenmoser-Würsten, C.; Eizirik, E.; Gentry, A.; Werdelin, L.; Wilting, A.; Yamaguchi, N.; Abramov, A. V.; Christiansen, P.; Driscoll, C.; Duckworth, J. W.; Johnson, W.; Luo, S.-J.; Meijaard, E.; O’Donoghue, P.; Sanderson, J.; Seymour, K.; Bruford, M.; Groves, C.; Hoffmann, M.; Nowell, K.; Timmons, Z.; Tobe, S. (2017). "A revised taxonomy of the Felidae: The final report of the Cat Classification Task Force of the IUCN Cat Specialist Group" (PDF). Cat News. Special Issue 11. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2020-01-17. Retrieved 2017-07-19.
  11. ^ Werdelin, L.; Yamaguchi, N.; Johnson, W. E.; O'Brien, S. J. (2010). "Phylogeny and evolution of cats (Felidae)". In Macdonald, D. W.; Loveridge, A. J. (eds.). Biology and Conservation of Wild Felids. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. pp. 59–82. ISBN 9780199234455. Archived from the original on 2018-09-25. Retrieved 2019-03-15.