|
Felidae:
The Felidae family includes lions, tigers, domestic cats, and other felines as its members. They are the most strictly carnivorous of the nine families in the order Carnivora. The first felids emerged during the Eocene, about 40 million years ago. The most familiar feline is the domestic cat or house cat (subspecies Felis silvestris catus), which first became associated with humans thousands of years ago. Its wild relative, the wild cat, still lives in Europe, Africa and western Asia, although habitat destruction has restricted its range. Whether domestic cats and wildcats should be classified as separate species remains controversial. Other well-known members of the feline family include big cats such as the lion, tiger, leopard, jaguar, puma, and cheetah, and other wild cats such as the lynx, caracal, and bobcat. The extinct subfamily Machairodontinae, including the "saber-toothed cats" such as the well known Smilodon, were also true felines, in contrast to similar animals such as Thylacosmilus or Nimravidae. The felines' closest relatives are thought to be the civets, hyenas, and mongooses. All feline species share a genetic anomaly that prevents them from tasting sweetness. |
