Cat Evolution Tree Views

General Goods

The scientists were able to reconstruct the evolutionary tree of cats with a great deal of statistical confidence. Their results are published in this week's Science (link to come here). I've put the illustrations from the paper at the bottom for those who like to revel in the gorey details. What's particularly neat about the paper is that it offers a hypothesis for how cats spread around the world. The researchers came up with this hypothesis by looking at where cats are today, and then mapping their locations onto the evolutionary tree.

All saber-tooth mammals lived between 9,000 and 33.7 million years ago, but the evolutionary lines that lead to the various saber-tooth genera started to diverge much earlier. The lineage that led to Thylacosmilus was the first to split off, in the late Cretaceous. It is a marsupial, and thus more closely related to kangaroos and opossums than the felines. The creodonts diverged next, and then the nimravids, before the blossoming of the truly feline saber-tooths. Class Mammalia Subclass Marsupialia (diverg ... See also:Saber-toothed cat, Saber-toothed cat - Saber-tooth genera, Saber-toothed cat - Saber-tooth evolutionary tree, Saber-toothed cat - Why such large teeth?, Saber-toothed cat - Grabbing, Saber-toothed cat - Slashing, Saber-toothed cat - Display

How a single feline-like ancestor in Asia spread throughout the world and developed into all modern cat species?! This 11-million-year-old puzzle has been ultimately solved. Except Australia and Antarctica, cats are native to all continents. The existing 37 wild and domestic species belong to one of the world0’s most successful carnivore families. But, the biologists are still baffled in part, by the details of this evolution success story. It1’s because the fossil records are incomplete and there are few distinguishing dental and skeletal characteristics among ancient cats. To better chart the journey of cat evolution, a team led by Stephen O0’Brien and Warren Johnson of the National Cancer Institute in Frederick, Maryland, has constructed a feline family tree, after nearly ten years of genetic research. Via: The National Geographic News 1518

Ever wondered how your pampered moggy is related to its scarier cousins on the plains of Africa? The first family tree charting the evolutionary relationships between cat species will tell you - your lovable kitten last shared a common ancestor with lions and leopards 10.8m years ago and with cheetahs 6.7m years ago.