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Felidae is the family of cats. A member of this family is also called a felid.〔Salles, L. O. (1992). Felid phylogenetics: extant taxa and skull morphology (Felidae, Aeluroidea). American Museum Novitates no. 3047.〕〔Hemmer, H. (1978). Evolutionary systematics of living Felidae – present status and current problems. Carnivore 1: 71–79.〕〔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.〕〔Christiansen, P. (2008). Evolution of skull and mandible shape in cats (Carnivora: Felidae). PLoS One 3(7): e2807.〕 Living cats belong to the subfamilies: *Pantherinae – including tiger, lion, jaguar, leopard, snow leopard and clouded leopard〔 *Felinae – including all the non-pantherine cats Cats are obligate carnivores; they must consume meat to survive. Therefore, they are sometimes referred to as hypercarnivores because of the much higher proportion of protein they require in their diet, much more than most other mammals. Of the 13 terrestrial families in the order Carnivora, they are the strictest carnivores.〔Legrand-Defretin, V. (1994). Differences between cats and dogs: a nutritional view. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society 53 (01): 15–24.〕 The first cats emerged during the Oligocene, about 25 million years ago. In prehistoric times, a third subfamily, the Machairodontinae, included the "saber-toothed cats", such as the ''Smilodon''. Other superficially cat-like mammals, such as the metatherians ''Thylacosmilus'' and ''Thylacoleo'', or the Nimravidae, are not included in Felidae despite superficial similarities. ==Evolution== The 41 known cat species in the world today are all descended from the same ancestor.〔 Cats originated in Asia and spread across continents by crossing land bridges. Testing of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA revealed that the ancient cats evolved into eight main lineages that diverged in the course of at least 10 migrations (in both directions) from continent to continent via the Bering land bridge and the Isthmus of Panama, with the ''Panthera'' genus being the oldest and the ''Felis'' genus being the youngest. About 60% of the modern cat species are estimated to have developed within the last million years.〔 Felidae's closest relatives are thought to be the Asiatic linsangs. Together with the Viverridae, hyenas, mongooses, and Madagascar carnivores, they form the suborder Feliformia. Most cat species share a genetic anomaly that prevents them from tasting sweetness. Most cat species have a haploid number of 18 or 19. New World cats (those in Central and South America) have a haploid number of 18, possibly due to the combination of two smaller chromosomes into a larger one. Prior to this discovery, biologists had been largely unable to establish a family tree of cats from fossil records because the fossils of different cat species all look very much alike, differing primarily in size. Domestic cats may either have a long or short tail. At one point, biologists had to consider whether the short tail also found in the lynx was the ancestral or derived trait. Without looking at the fossil record, researchers could look at outgroups and their character state. It turns out that all animals belonging to Felidae’s sister taxa Viverridae have long tails. Thus, the long tails of domestic cats, lions, and pumas represent the ancestral character state. Although simplified, this method applies to the evolution of domestic cats.〔 ''Felis silvestris catus'' (domestic cat) and ''F. silvestris silvestris'' (European wildcat) are sister subspecies. ''F. silvestris lybica'' (African wildcat) and ''F. bieti'' (Chinese mountain cat) are sister species. These two groups have a common ancestor. This common ancestor has a common ancestor with ''F. margarita'' (sand cat). Similarly, ''F. nigripes'' (black-footed cat) share a common ancestor with the species mentioned above. ''F. chaus'' (jungle cat) share a common ancestor with all of the species mentioned above. Many domestic cats display a rosette pattern on their coats. This character state, however, is not related to the rosettes found on big cats. Domestic cats and big cats underwent convergent evolution for this trait. The most common ancestor to all cats had a flecked coat. Lynxes display this character state. The jaguarundi lost this character state secondarily. The most common recent ancestor of snow leopards, tigers, jaguars, lions, and leopards developed a coat with rosette patterns from the flecked patterns. Tigers and lions, however, do not display rosettes as adults. They both have lost this ancestral character state over time. Adult tigers actually display elongated rosettes that now appear as stripes. Adult lions seem to lack any distinctive markings altogether. Both juvenile tigers and lions, however, display partial rosettes. This ancestral character state appears only during these early stages. Thus, the rosette patterns found on snow leopards, jaguars, and leopards all have a common origin. Carnivores compete against each other. There is fossil evidence that felids have been more successful than canids in North America.〔http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/cats-vs-dogs-scientists-confirm-that-felines-are-better-from-an-evolutionary-perspective-10454590.html "Cats vs dogs: Scientists confirm that felines are better... from an evolutionary perspective" The Independent, 14 August 2015〕〔http://www.gu.se/english/about_the_university/news-calendar/News_detail//competition-from-the-ancestors-of-cats-drove-the-extinction-of-many-species-of-ancient-dogs.cid1313224 "Competition from the ancestors of cats drove the extinction of many species of ancient dogs" University of Gothenburg, 14 July 2015〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Felidae」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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