What do all members of the Felidae family have in common? 

All cats have evolved as predatory hunting mammals with highly developed senses of hearing, sight, touch and smell. Their anatomical features, such as the rounded head and skeletal structure, suggest that the over 40  recognised species within the Felidae family share a common ancestor. This ancestor likely lived in Asia around 10-12 million years ago.  

Over the past 10 to 11 million years, the Felidae family has experienced rapid expansion and diversification. Three million years ago, a wide variety of cats were living in all parts of the world except the Arctic, Antarctic and Australia. Fluctuating sea levels helped create conditions where Felidae species could migrate to other parts of the world when sea levels were low. When sea levels were high, it isolated the development of species. The natural behaviour of ancestral cats to disperse and seek their own territories is likely to have helped their widespread migration. In addition to this, they also needed to follow their prey species in order to survive.  

Felidae are the most highly developed carnivorous hunters of all species of mammal. Except for lions, which live in groups, all other wild cats have developed as solitary animals able to hunt and fend for themselves. Cats are territorial, establishing their own area for hunting and marking out their territory mainly via scent and pheromones. They come together primarily for the purpose of mating. 

Apart from lions, where males boast a distinctive mane, male and female cats are similar in appearance, although males tend to be slightly larger. They have five digits on their front feet, and four on their hind feet. These digits are protected by pads, which also help to reduce the sound of the cat approaching its prey when hunting. Other than the cheetah, all cats also have retractable claws.  

Cats have developed a wide range of coat colours. In their natural habitat, these colours allow cats to blend seamlessly into their surroundings, enhancing their hunting prowess.  

How has the domestic cat evolved? 

Fossil records from early human settlements lead us to believe that cats and humans have co-existed for a long time, although it’s likely these were wildcats.  

True domestication (or ‘taming’ of cats) was previously believed to have happened in Egypt around 3600-4700 years ago. Cat skulls found in Egyptian cat burial grounds mainly identify as the species Felis silvestris lybica (the Near Eastern wildcat - though some texts will also classify the Near Eastern wildcat as Felis lybica lybica ). It’s this wildcat, living in Asia and North Africa, that’s now thought to be the major ancestor of the modern-day Felis catus .  

More recent evidence shows that feline domestication probably began around 10,000 years ago or more in the Middle East, in the region of the Fertile Crescent (Israel and surrounding countries). The earliest record of domestication comes from a cat found deliberately buried with its owner in a grave in Cyprus, around 9,500 years ago. It’s assumed that domestication would have begun some time before this, as there were no native cats in Cyprus. 

Living near people 

Around 10,000 years ago in Israel, humans began storing grain - which led to an accumulation and rise in the population of the house mouse. This rise is believed to have attracted wildcats into close proximity to humans and led to their subsequent taming. Cats that were more tolerant of humans would have been more likely to approach human settlements, and this helped in the process of their taming and domestication.  

Archaeological evidence suggests that cats were commonly found in association with human settlements in the Fertile Crescent by 3,700 years ago, and they became an ‘official deity’ (in the form of the goddess Bastet) in Egypt around 2,900 years ago. Thousands of cats were bred near temples in ancient Egypt, sacrificed to Bastet, mummified and buried along with their caregivers so that the person could inhabit the cat’s body during the afterlife. This suggests the Egyptians were actively breeding cats.  By 2,000 years ago, there was increasing evidence of cats spreading throughout Europe, most likely linked to shipping and maritime trade, and today, they are one of the most popular pets and are seen in all parts of the world apart from Antarctica.   

Modern cats 

Genetic analysis shows that the DNA of modern-day domestic cats worldwide is almost identical to that of Felis silvestris lybica , clearly showing that this species gave rise to our domestic cats. The DNA from other small cats (including the European Wildcat ( Felis siylvestris ) and the Central Asian and Southern African wildcats ( F. silvestris ornata and  F. silvestris cafra) form distinct and unrelated clusters. 

Felis siylvestris lybica still survives today and is a solitary nocturnal hunter with a similar appearance to domestic tabby cats, though it has a lighter, more sandy-coloured coat and longer legs. Individuals of this species are spread out across the savanna, with large territories, due to the relatively low availability of rodent prey.  

What defines a distinct species of animal is not entirely fixed. In general, different species can’t interbreed, and won’t do so under natural conditions. Under artificial conditions, it’s possible to interbreed some species of cats – for example,. lions and tigers, though the offspring are usually infertile. However, because of its close relation to the wildcat, the domestic cat still retains the ability to interbreed with this species, and this does happen under natural conditions, with the resulting offspring being fertile. In some regions, this has caused significant problems with feral and stray cats interbreeding with the native wildcat, leading to a diminishing population of genetically distinct purebred wildcats for example, in Scotland and Hungary. 

The domestic cat was first classified as the species Felis catus in 1758 by Carolus Linnaeus, and although this name is still the most commonly used, some studies suggest that the domestic cat could be regarded as a sub-species of the Wildcat – that is, Felis silvestris catus – and this term is used by some. 

Domestication of the cat 

Felis catus as a species has occurred through wildcats living closely with humans. However, this shouldn’t be regarded as ‘domestication’ in the same way that dogs and other animals have been domesticated. In general, cats haven’t undergone major changes during domestication and their form and behaviour remain very similar to that of their wildcat ancestors. They remain perfectly capable of surviving in the wild, and many can revert to a feral or wild existence. 

There are two main theories about the domestication of cats. One is that the original wildcats ( Felis siylvestris lybica ) were deliberately tamed and selected for friendliness. Another is that rather than being selected, they were merely tolerated by humans, and developed from their ‘wild’ relatives through natural selection and adapted to hunting pests found around human settlements. In either scenario, several traits of cats, including their small size, social nature, body language, playful nature, high intelligence and perhaps an inborn tendency among all small felids towards tameness, may have helped with their domestication. 

Due to their ability to hunt and control vermin, the presence of cats has been beneficial to humans for thousands of years.  Strictly speaking, most cats are not truly domesticated (breeding, care, and reproduction being completely controlled by humans). This only really applies to pedigree pet cats, which form a very small proportion of the total pet cat population. Undoubtedly, one of the major attractions of cat ownership today is that while being tame, they show many of the same characteristics as their wild relatives. 

Today’s domestic cats retain several characteristics from their desert-dwelling ancestors, including the ability to survive with a low water intake through the production of very concentrated urine (more so than dogs) and the production of relatively dry faeces, to minimise water loss. They also tolerate extremes of heat, not showing signs of discomfort until skin temperature exceeds 52°C, whereas humans start to feel uncomfortable when skin temperature exceeds 44.5°C. In domestic cats, body temperature doesn’t tend to fluctuate over a 24-hour period. This is due to their tendency to remain active both during the day and at night.  

Although Felis catus is a well-established species nowadays, the species is so diverse that domestic cats can and do live different lifestyles.

Glossary of Terms

Genera - a group of animals that includes several closely related species 

Felis cactus - domestic cat 

Panthera - cats that roar – lions, tigers, leopards, snow leopards, clouded leopards and jaguars 

Acinonyx - the cheetah 

Felis - all other ‘small’ cats 

Phenotype - the physical and biochemical characteristics of an organism 

Morphology - the form and structure of organisms