Vital Pet Health

All cats trace back to one common ancestor Proailurus who lived on our planet between 20 and 30 million years ago.

Proailurus was similar in size to a large domestic cat and probably spent a lot of its time hunting in trees for small animals. It is hard to believe that this small animal evolved in to the big cats including the fearsome sabre-toothed cats which dominated the world for millions of years. These fearsome beasts however, were outlived by their less-assuming cousins and all living cat species today owe their heritage to the cougar-like Pseudaelurus. 

Eleven million years ago modern cats spread out from Asia to the rest of the world, developing into eight major lineages. DNA analysis shows that there were at least ten major migrations during this development. The big cats are the oldest, while cats downsized themselves producing most of the modern Felis species in the last million years.

Sometimes in the history of an animal’s evolution two unrelated animals find a way to get along and have a mutually beneficial relationship. The youngest species of cat arose in this way and is the cat we all know and love the Domestic Cat.