Some 50 million years ago, a weasel-like animal known as Miacis was the common ancestor of land-dwelling carnivores, including the family Felidae. The Miacis later became extinct, but before they died, they went on to produce the feline and canine families. The Miacis produced Proailurus, a prehistoric cat that led Europe and Asia 25 million years ago. It was small in size, arboreal, or tree-dwelling, and it had some dental features that are more like the viverrids and the genets. When the ice age began in North America about 10 to 15 million years ago, small cats migrated to Asia and North America until they became extinct or evolved into big cats and new feline species.
The common ancestor of the modern-day feline (cats, lions, tigers, leopards, etc.) is Pseudaelurus, which lived around 20 million years ago. This cat was more specialized for ground-dwelling, leading to a remarkable cat evolution. Fossils tell us that the first actual cats evolved in Asia and spread to Europe and North America around 10.8 to 20 million years ago. The roar of a 20 million-year-old extinct species of big cat still reverberates. It was big and heavy and had two thin, saber-like teeth, each shaped like a flattened one. It is on one side. This cat was known as the saber-toothed cat or Smilodon.
At least, that’s what scientists thought of this fossil until recently when similar prints were. These prints are around 10.8 million years old. Very controversial. People need to find out if the saber-toothed cat went to the Americas before it went to Asia, coped with the climate change at that time, and inhabited Asia again, or if the prints are of another unknown feline with similar traits. This cat faced many obstacles with different environments and prey, leading to a great diversity of species as it migrated to other continents.
Feline Ancestors
The feline family has evolved throughout the past 37 million years. Fossil records show that the first cats appeared in the Eocene period, 54-38 million years ago. These cats, known as the miacids, are small tree-living animals; the civet is a modern-day example. They have bear-like feet and longer or shorter tails. It was not until 12 million years ago, however, that the first actual cat appeared with characteristics recognizable as feline. This cat, known as provirus, was the first to hold its entire weight on its toes. There was much mobility in the limb joined it to—from the shoulder blade and collarbone to the breastbone—and a shorter, steadier foot. These developments were characteristics of modern-day cats, thus making proailurus the direct ancestor of today’s cats.
Proailurus lived in Europe, Asia, and North America. The most advanced species lived in Africa, where woodland and forest provided the ideal hunting environment. Proailurus originated from an animal known as mioprionodon, which now has strong links with the viverrids. At some point, the viverrids had already developed cat-like characteristics, and mioprionodon was merely an offshoot that furthered these characteristics until it became an actual feline, which meant that the viverrids then shared a common ancestor with the actual cats, and from there, the development of provirus sealed the path the feline family would take.
Early Domestication
It has been more than once speculated that cats were domesticated solely for their pest control and warfare of stored grains. This theory is false. The African Wild Cat, the ancestor of the domestic cat, is frequently found near human communities in Africa. Like today, they rest in the shade during the day’s heat and come out to hunt in the evenings. During these prowling hours throughout the villages, the cats would catch their meals around the cooking areas.
Knowing that cats were not pests themselves but, in fact, able to control the populations of vermin attracted by human food stores, it is implicit that the choice to begin domesticating them by the cats’ choosing. Mutualism was the best course of natural selection for both parties involved. The cats could live without having to expend extra energy in hunting for mice and had a reliable food source to scavenge from, as well as protection and a relatively safe environment to raise their offspring. Unlike the farmyard animals domesticated in Mesopotamia because they were easy prey for capture, the cats maintained a non-dependent nature.
They were never truly owned by a single individual, and no selective breeding programs were instituted. In a sense, the cat’s level of domestication has regressed from the highly successful self-domestication that the African Wild Cat achieved, as their house cat descendants require attentive care and cannot live independently in the wild.
Spread across Continents
Cats in the Near East, some 10,000 years ago, were helping farmers protect stored grains from rodents. For this, they gained free meals and gradually ingratiated themselves with people due to natural selection. Around 1500 BC, cats of the “Alley” type were esteemed in Egypt for their hunting abilities and were used to protect the crops from pests. The Egyptians built upon this and began to tame cats for the same purpose. At the time, death was the punishment for harming a cat, and even by accident, it caused a peaceful and protective bond between humans and cats, in great contrast to the cats that went with the Vikings and Columbus to protect the food from pests en route. These animals often left port at the first landing and returned to a feral state.
Cats first appeared in the Asian woodlands millions of years ago and have since expanded to almost every continent. According to botanical evidence, the cat’s wild ancestors, the Miacis, lived about 40 million years ago. This small cat-sized animal was a tree dweller. About 20 million years ago, the prehistoric cats of the Pseudaelurus species began to leave Asia and head between Africa and Europe. At that time, these two continents were connected as they are today. As the climate changed, the savannah spread, and so did the Pseudaelurus, which evolved into many different species of modern cats. Except for Antarctica and Australia, cats have since reached and adapted to nearly every type of environment and climate in the world. This article will take you to the different places and times that cats have been in the world.
