IUCN/SSC Cat Specialist Group Library

IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library

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Estes, R.D.
Cat Family - Felidae
1993 Book Chapter
A family of carnivores genetically, anatomically, and behaviorally so like the domestic cat that the main differences are in size and coloration. The cheetah does stand apart from the rest, anatomically more than behaviorally, but big cats are just jumbled versions of felis, distinguished mainly by a modification of the larynx that enables them to roar. The family dates back some 40 Million years; modern cats (subfamily felinae) evolved along with ruminants and rodents and have been around for at least 24 million years. True cats of the genus Felis date back c. 6 million years, and the cheetah has been around 2 million years, but the other big cats became dominant only in the last half million years, during the golden age of mammals.
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