The Cat Survival Trust

MIACIDS
(Founder Carnivore Group)

Evolution of ancestral carnivores
leading to the modern wild cat family

Nimravidae
(Saber-Tooth-Like Carnivores)

Miacidae
(Early Carnivore Group)

Arctoidea/Canoidea
(Bears/Canids)

Viverravidae
(Early Carnivore Group)

Feloidea
(Felid-Like Carnivores)

Aeluroidea
Viverrids/Mongooses/Hyenas

Proailurus Genus
(Early Wild Cat)

Pratifelis Genus/Vishnufelis Genus/Sivaelurus Genus
(Early Wild Cats)

Machairodontinae
(True Saber-Tooth Cats)

Pseudaelurus Genus
(Early Wild Cat)

Schizailurus Genus
(Early Wild Cat)

FELIDAE
(Modern Wild Cats)

MIACIDS

The miacids (Miacidae) were primitive carnivores which lived during the Paleocene and Eocene Epoch about 65—33 million years ago. Miacids existed for approximately 32 million years.

Miacids are thought to have evolved into today's modern carnivorous mammals of the order Carnivora. They were small marten-like carnivores with long, little bodies and long tails. Some species were arboreal while others lived on the ground.

They probably fed on invertebrates, lizards, birds, and smaller mammals like shrews and opossums. Their teeth and skulls show that the miacids were less developed than the modern carnivores. They had Carnivora type carnassials but lacked fully ossified auditory bullae (rounded protrusions).

The miacids are divided into two groups: the miacines with a full complement of molars and the viverravines with a reduced number of molars and more specialized carnassials.

Nimravidae

The Nimravidae, sometimes known as false saber-toothed cats, are an extinct family of mammalian carnivores belonging to the suborder Feliformia and endemic to North America, Europe, and Asia living from the Eocene through the Miocene epochs (42—7.2 mya), existing for approximately 34.8 million years.

Miacidae

The Miacidae as traditionally conceived is a monophyletic; it is not a paraphyletic array of stem taxa. Traditionally, the Miacidae and the Viverravidae had been classified in a third, extinct paraphyletic superfamily, the Miacoidea, from which the direct ancestors of both Carnivora and Creodonta were thought to have arisen. Today, Carnivora and Miacoidea are grouped together in the crown-clade Carnivoramorpha, and the Miacoidea are regarded as basal carnivoramorphs. Some species of the genus Miacis evolved into modern day carnivores of the Order Carnivora, but only the species Miacis cognitus is a true carnivoran. Thus, Miacis may have given rise to all modern Carnivora.

Arctoidea/Canoidea

Arctoidea is a superfamily of extinct and extant mostly carnivorous mammals which include the extinct group Hemicyonidae (dog-bears), and extant groups Musteloidea (weasels), Nothocyon, Pinnipedia (seals, sea lions), and Ursidae (bears), found in all continents from the Eocene, 46 Ma ago, to the present, approximately 46 million years.

Canoidea (literally "dog-like"), is a suborder within the order Carnivora. They typically possess a long snout and non-retractile claws (in contrast to the cat-like carnivores, the Feliformia). The Pinnipedia (seals, sea lions and walruses) evolved from caniform ancestors and are accordingly assigned to this group. Most members of this group have non-retractile claws (the fisher, marten, red panda and ringtail have retractile or semi-retractile claws) and tend to be plantigrade (with the exception of Canidae). Other traits that separate Caniformia from Feliformia is that caniforms have longer jaws and have more teeth, with less specialized carnassial teeth. They also tend more towards omnivorous and opportunistic feeding, while the feliforms are more specialized for eating meat. Caniforms have single-chambered or partially divided auditory bullae, composed of a single bone, while in feliforms the auditory bullae are double-chambered, composed of two bones joined by a septum.

Feloidea

The Feliformia ("cat-like" carnivores, also Feloidea) are a suborder within the order Carnivora and includes cats (large and small), hyenas, mongooses, civets and related taxa. The other suborder of Carnivora is Caniformia ("dog-like" carnivores). One shared characteristic distinguishes Carnivora from all other mammals: the possession of the four carnassial teeth in the front of the jaw.

The separation of Carnivora into the broad groups of feliforms and caniforms is widely accepted, as is the definition of Feliformia and Caniformia as suborders (sometimes superfamilies). The classification of feliforms as part of the Feliformia suborder or under separate groupings continues to evolve.

Aeluroidea

Aeluroidea is an extant and extinct superfamily of feline-like carnivores which are or were endemic to North America, South America, Africa, and Asia. They appeared during the Oligocene about 33.3 million years ago.

Proailurus

Proailurus was a prehistoric carnivore that lived in Europe and Asia approximately 25 million years ago in the Late Oligocene and Miocene. One recent phylogeny places it as a basal member of the Feloidea, the superfamily that includes mongooses, civets, hyenas, and cats; but other studies suggest that it instead was a felid (a true cat).

Pratifelis Genus/Vishnufelis Genus/Sivaelurus Genus

Machairodontinae

Machairodontinae is an extinct carnivorous mammal subfamily of Felidae (true cats) endemic to Asia, Africa, North America, South America, and Europe from the Miocene to Pleistocene living from c. 23 Ma until c. 11,000 years ago.

It contains some of the extinct cats commonly known as "saber-toothed cats", including the famed genus Smilodon as well as other cats with only minor increases in the size and length of their maxillary canines. Sometimes other carnivorous mammals with elongated teeth are also called saber-toothed cats, although they do not belong to the felids. Besides the machairodonts, saber-toothed predators arose in the Nimravidae, the Barbourofelidae, the Creodonta (Machaeroides) and even in a group of Marsupials (Thylacosmilus).

Pseudaelurus Genus

Pseudaelurus is a prehistoric cat that lived in Europe, Asia and North America in the Miocene approximately 20-8 million years ago. It is an ancestor of today's felines and pantherines as well as the extinct machairodont saber-tooths, and is a successor to Proailurus. It originated from Eurasia and was the first felid to reach North America, when it entered the continent at about 18.5 m.y ending a 'cat-gap' of 7 million years. The slender proportions of the animal, together with its short, viverrid-like legs, suggest that it may have been an agile climber of trees.

FELIDAE

Felidae is the biological family of the cats; a member of this family is called a felid. Felids are the strictest carnivores of the thirteen terrestrial families in the order Carnivora, although the three families of marine mammals comprising the superfamily pinnipedia are as carnivorous as the felids. The most familiar felid is the domestic cat, which first became associated with humans about 10,000 years ago, but the family includes all other wild cats including the big cats.