What\u2019s the world\u2019s largest cat?<\/a><\/li>

What\u2019s the world’s smallest cat? Meet the tiny felines barely bigger than a ruler<\/a><\/li>

The world’s rarest cats, from the endangered snow leopard to the uber-cute Iriomote cat, on the brink of extinction<\/a><\/li><\/ul>
When did cats first appear?<\/h2>
Cats marked their territory long before we did, emerging in Eurasia 30 million years ago (Mya) and 25 million years before our ancestors first appeared in Africa. In the time since, they\u2019ve explored five of the seven continents and established themselves as apex predators<\/a> in a range of habitats, from tropical rainforests to mountain ranges.<\/p>
As a group, cats – or Felidae – are known for their retractable claws, prominent canines, striking fur patterns, and powerful, slender bodies. These characteristics are what makes cats \u2018cats\u2019, and they\u2019re shared by all of today\u2019s 41 extant species\u00a0and<\/em>\u00a0their roughly 120 extinct relatives. <\/p>
Top 10 prehistoric cats<\/h2>
A lot of prehistoric cats took these characteristics to the extreme, evolving into stealthy assassins capable of killing giants such as mammoths.<\/p>
Proailurus – The First Cat<\/h3>
<\/div><\/figure>Not much larger than today\u2019s house cats, weighing in at just 9kg,\u00a0Proailurus<\/em>\u00a0is widely considered the first \u2018true\u2019 cat and a common ancestor of all extant felines. <\/p>It first appeared in Eurasia ~30 Mya, during a time when the continent\u2019s grasslands were expanding and its tropical forests were receding. Its fossilised remains have been found in Spain and Mongolia, suggesting it had a very large range.<\/p>Proailurus<\/em>\u00a0was built like a cougar, with a long tail, large eyes, and sharp claws and teeth. It\u2019s thought to have been at least partially arboreal, hunting on forest floors before dragging its prey up into the safety of the canopy, much like modern <a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/mammals\/leopard-facts\">leopards<\/a>. Its prey likely consisted of small, deer-like creatures and early rodents.<\/p><h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-smilodon-the-sabre-tooth-cat\">Smilodon – The Sabre Tooth Cat<\/h3><figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>This infamous predator hunted on the same frost-covered, American grasslands as our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/ice-age-animals\">Ice Age<\/a> ancestors, competing with them for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/mammals\/expert-guide-to-mammoths-all-your-questions-answered\">mammoth<\/a>, mastodon, and bison carcasses up until 10,000 years ago.<\/p>Smilodon<\/em>\u00a0was more robustly built than any living cat, looking more like a bear with its stout hind limbs and long, powerful forelimbs. This stocky frame, plus the 28cm-long, protruding canines that give it its name, made it a specialist hunter built to ambush large prey rather than run it down, like today\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/mammals\/facts-about-big-cats\">big cats<\/a> do.\u00a0<\/p>Known from hundreds of fossils pulled from La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, US,\u00a0Smilodon<\/em> is perhaps\u00a0the<\/em>\u00a0most\u00a0studied prehistoric cat. These natural traps claimed the lives of thousands of animals during the Ice Age, including\u00a0Smilodon<\/em>, but thankfully preserved their bones for us to study.<\/p><h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-cave-lion-the-uk-s-last-big-cat\">Cave Lion – The UK\u2019s Last Big Cat<\/h3><figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"679\" src=\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/62\/2024\/08\/Eurasian-cave-lion.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-108420\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Eurasian cave lion. Getty images<\/figcaption><\/figure>Today\u2019s big cats are largely confined to declining habitats in Africa, Asia, and South America, but during the Ice Age their close relatives, cave lions, roamed across Europe, making their way as far north as the UK. <\/p><ul><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.countryfile.com\/wildlife\/britains-extinct-beasts\">Britain’s lost beasts: when did the moose, wolf and bear go extinct in UK?<\/a><\/li><\/ul>These lions (Panthera spelaea<\/em>)\u00a0looked a lot like modern <a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/mammals\/facts-about-lions\">lions<\/a> (Panthera leo<\/em>)\u00a0and are estimated to have diverged as recently as 500,000 years ago.<\/p>Cave Lions preyed on a variety of large mammals, from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/mammals\/reindeer-vs-deer-whats-the-difference\">reindeers <\/a>to bear cubs. They\u2019d seek out caves on their hunt for the latter and, in doing so, bump into our ancestors as they sought shelter from the elements. <\/p>Our interactions with these big cats have been documented in several stunning cave paintings found in France. A number of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/what-is-ivory-and-is-it-exclusive-to-elephants\">ivory<\/a> carvings and clay figurines depicting cave lions have also been found at sites across Europe.<\/p><h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-homotherium-the-scimitar-tooth-cat\">Homotherium – The Scimitar Tooth Cat<\/h3><figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2103\" height=\"1426\" src=\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/62\/2024\/08\/Homotherium.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-108597\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Getty images<\/figcaption><\/figure>Closely related to the sabre tooth cat,\u00a0Homotherium\u00a0<\/em>was part of a subfamily of big cats that, despite having no living descendants, was incredibly successful and widespread, with nearly 70 species spread across five continents.\u00a0Homotherium<\/em>\u00a0was arguably\u00a0the<\/em>\u00a0most successful member of this subfamily, ranging from Africa to North America for a period of roughly four million years.\u00a0<\/p>In comparison to its close cousin\u00a0Smilodon<\/em>, the canines of\u00a0Homotherium\u00a0<\/em>were noticeably shorter (~10cm) and, interestingly, serrated. It also had longer hind limbs than\u00a0Smilodon<\/em>, making it more suited to running down prey. <\/p>These adaptations, combined with genomic studies that have shown\u00a0Homotherium<\/em>\u00a0was highly social, have led researchers to suggest they hunted in packs. <\/p>At a cave in Texas, several\u00a0Homotherium<\/em>\u00a0were found amongst the remains of 400 juvenile mammoths, leaving no questions as to what they preyed on.<\/p><h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-simbakubwa-the-great-lion\">Simbakubwa – The Great Lion<\/h3><figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"871\" height=\"490\" src=\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/62\/2024\/08\/Simbakubwa-kutokaafrika_2.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-108600\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Mauricio Anton, CC BY-SA 4.0 https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>While its name in Swahili may translate to \u2018great lion\u2019, this huge predator was not a big cat, but rather a hyaenodon – a group that diverged from a shared ancestor millions of years before cats became \u2018cats\u2019. <\/p>It lived ~23 Mya in Africa and looked like a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/mammals\/facts-about-tigers\">tiger<\/a>, though it was significantly larger and, according to estimates, would have weighed in at 1,300kg – roughly 900kg heavier than the largest tiger ever recorded.<\/p>Simbakubwa<\/em>, unlike other <a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/dinosaurs\/prehistoric-animals\">prehistoric animals<\/a>, wasn\u2019t found in the field. Instead, it was discovered in a long-neglected museum drawer by a student. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/fossils-guide\">fossils<\/a> found were several jaw bones complete with some vicious-looking, self-sharpening teeth scientists say were designed to slice effortlessly through the tough meat of its prey – likely <a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/mammals\/facts-about-rhinos\">rhinoceroses<\/a> and early <a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/mammals\/facts-about-elephants\">elephants<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p><h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-miracinonyx-the-american-cheetah\">Miracinonyx – The American Cheetah<\/h3><figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"964\" height=\"674\" src=\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/62\/2024\/08\/Miracinonyx_american-cheetah.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-108601\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Sheatherius, CC BY-SA 4.0 https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>This big cat looked like a cross between a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/mammals\/mammal-cheetah-guide-facts\">cheetah<\/a> and a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/mammals\/facts-about-cougars\">cougar<\/a>, and while it may be more closely related to the latter, it\u2019s thought that it lived more like the former, hunting small, swift herbivores like mountain goats and pronghorns across grassy plains.<\/p><ul><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/mammals\/the-extinct-mighty-prehistoric-acinonyx-pleistocaenicus-was-the-largest-cheetah-ever-weighing-up-to-three-times-more-than-modern-cheetahs\">The extinct, mighty prehistoric Acinonyx pleistocaenicus was the largest cheetah ever, weighing up to three times more than modern cheetahs<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/mammals\/cheetah-vs-leopard-whats-the-difference\">What’s the difference between a cheetah and a leopard?<\/a><\/li><\/ul>Miracinonyx<\/em>\u00a0lived in North America from ~2.5 Mya to 16,000 years ago. It stood 85cm tall, weighed in at 70kg, and had a body length of more than 2.5m. It wasn\u2019t quite as fast as a modern cheetah, but its body was still built for speed.\u00a0<\/p>Its natural prey, pronghorns, still live in North America and continue to exhibit adaptations that some scientists believe they evolved to outrun\u00a0Miracinonyx<\/em>, such as their large lungs, light bones, and cushioned, shock-absorbing toes.\u00a0<\/p><h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-dinictis-the-false-cat\">Dinictis – The False Cat<\/h3><figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1343\" src=\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/62\/2024\/08\/Dinictis-chasing-Protoceras-Charles-R.-Knight.jpg?fit=1024,1024\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-108602\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Dinictis\u00a0chasing\u00a0Protoceras,\u00a0Charles R. Knight , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>Part of a group known as \u201cfalse sabre tooth cats\u201d,\u00a0Dinictis\u00a0<\/em>wasn\u2019t a \u2018true\u2019 cat and lived a few million years before the first cat,\u00a0Proailurus<\/em>.\u00a0Dinictis\u00a0<\/em>was a nimravid and thus closely related to cats but, crucially, part of its own distinct family. <\/p>It looked quite similar to a modern <a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/mammals\/leopard-facts\">leopard<\/a>, with its low-slung, slender body, but it had noticeably shorter legs and feet. It\u2019s believed\u00a0Dinictis<\/em>\u00a0walked flat footed, rather than on its toes like cats do.<\/p>Dinictis<\/em>\u00a0lived in North America from the Late Eocene to the Early Miocene (~37-20 Mya), hunting small, deer-like creatures in scrub and open woodlands. As its habitat disappeared and was replaced by grasslands in the Miocene, it may have been forced to compete with several early cats, which were better adapted to savanna-style living.<\/p><h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-xenosmilus-the-shark-tooth-cat\">Xenosmilus – The Shark Tooth Cat<\/h3><figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"575\" height=\"462\" src=\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/62\/2024\/08\/Xenosmilus.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-108604\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Mauricio Ant\u00f3n, CC BY 3.0 NL https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/3.0\/nl\/deed.en, via Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>Of the roughly 70 species of sabre tooth cats,\u00a0Xenosmilus<\/em>\u00a0was perhaps\u00a0the\u00a0most extraordinary. It had short, robust hindlimbs like\u00a0Smilodon<\/em>,\u00a0and\u00a0mildly elongated, serrated canines like\u00a0Homotherium<\/em>. The rest of its teeth were also serrated and arranged in a pattern that gave it a bite less like a cat\u2019s and more like a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/fish\/shark-facts\">shark\u2019s<\/a><\/strong>. This allowed\u00a0Xenosmilus<\/em>\u00a0to fully interlock its teeth and cut straight through prey when biting down.<\/p>Some scientists have theorised that\u00a0Xenosmilus<\/em>\u00a0may have hunted using a \u2018bite and retreat\u2019 strategy, inflicting devastating wounds before stepping back to let its prey bleed out. <\/p>Just like its cousins\u00a0Smilodon<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Homotherium<\/em>,\u00a0Xenosmilus<\/em>\u00a0hunted small to large-sized herbivores that used to roam the grasslands of North America. It also lived at a similar time, from ~2 Mya to 300,000 years ago.<\/p><h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-pseudaelurus-the-intrepid-explorer\">Pseudaelurus – The Intrepid Explorer<\/h3><figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"874\" height=\"482\" src=\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/62\/2024\/08\/Pseudaelurus.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-108606\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Jay Matternes, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>Some 10 million years after the first cat,\u00a0Proailurus<\/em>, established a foothold in Eurasia, its successor,\u00a0Pseudaelurus<\/em>, wandered into North America and ended a period in the fossil record known as the \u201cCat Gap\u201d – a seven-million-year-long period (~25-18 Mya) when cats and cat-like animals seemingly \u2018disappeared\u2019 from the continent.\u00a0<\/p>Pseudaelurus<\/em>, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/facts-about-iberian-lynx\">lynx<\/a>-sized forest dweller that preyed largely on small, herbivorous mammals, proliferated in North America and gave rise to many new groups, including Machairodontinae – the extinct subfamily that includes sabre tooth cats and their relatives – and Pantherinae – the diverse subfamily that includes all of today\u2019s big cats.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p><h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-african-wildcat-the-domesticated-cat\">African Wildcat – The Domesticated Cat<\/h3><figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video controls=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/62\/2024\/08\/African-Wildcat.mp4\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Getty video<\/figcaption><\/figure>Around the same time that the last sabre tooth cats died out in North America (~10,000 years ago), a few thousand miles away in the Middle East\u2019s Fertile Crescent, a group of African wildcats took up residence in a small village. <\/p>These cats were accepted by their human neighbours and, soon afterwards, tamed. There are now more than 50 breeds of domesticated cat, all descended from African wildcats.<\/p><ul><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/mammals\/how-we-domesticated-the-cat\">How we domesticated the cat<\/a><\/li><\/ul>Amongst wildcats, the African wildcat – or\u00a0Felis lybica\u00a0<\/em>– is considered the friendliest and most accepting of humans. Others, like the European wildcat (Felis silvestris<\/em>), behave more like their big cat cousins and prefer to be left well alone.<\/p><ul><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/mammals\/facts-about-scottish-wildcats\">Scottish wildcat guide: how to identify, where they live, and conservation efforts<\/a><\/li><\/ul><ul><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/mammals\/6-key-behaviours-that-reveal-the-wild-ancestry-of-your-cat\">How wild is your cat? 6 key behaviours that reveal the wild ancestry of your cat<\/a><\/li><\/ul> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From tigers to tabbies, today\u2019s cats come in many different shapes, sizes, and temperaments. Their ancestors were just as diverse, if not\u00a0more\u00a0so. Here are our top 10 prehistoric cats\u2026 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":41310,"template":"","categories":[1,241],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"8"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/08\/prehistoric-cats-meet-10-ruthless-feline-hunters-that-roamed-the-planet-thousands-of-years-ago.jpg",871,490,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/08\/prehistoric-cats-meet-10-ruthless-feline-hunters-that-roamed-the-planet-thousands-of-years-ago-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/08\/prehistoric-cats-meet-10-ruthless-feline-hunters-that-roamed-the-planet-thousands-of-years-ago-300x169.jpg",300,169,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/08\/prehistoric-cats-meet-10-ruthless-feline-hunters-that-roamed-the-planet-thousands-of-years-ago-768x432.jpg",768,432,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/08\/prehistoric-cats-meet-10-ruthless-feline-hunters-that-roamed-the-planet-thousands-of-years-ago.jpg",800,450,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/08\/prehistoric-cats-meet-10-ruthless-feline-hunters-that-roamed-the-planet-thousands-of-years-ago.jpg",871,490,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/08\/prehistoric-cats-meet-10-ruthless-feline-hunters-that-roamed-the-planet-thousands-of-years-ago.jpg",871,490,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"From tigers to tabbies, today\u2019s cats come in many different shapes, sizes, and temperaments. Their ancestors were just as diverse, if not\u00a0more\u00a0so. Here are our top 10 prehistoric cats\u2026","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/41309"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}