Why are most cats relatively large, while cats are small?

Cats are a large family. The tigers, lions, leopards, and domestic cats we are familiar with are all cats. However, the cats we are familiar with are only a small part of them, and domestic cats are only a small branch of the family Felidae - Feline subfamily - Felis - domestic cat species. They also have many relatives who are creatures we are not familiar with. .

Cats first appeared in the Eocene Epoch 30 million years ago. The earliest cat was Eocat, which was smaller than the domestic cat. A slightly larger critter.

During the Eocene Epoch, Eocats gradually evolved into Pseudocats, the ancestors of Metacats and modern cats.

In fact, not all cats are large animals, there are many smaller ones, such as cloud cats, caracals, golden cats, lynx, etc.

The reason why the feline family is so divided and has so many branches. This is because cats have evolved independently for a long time. During the evolution, there has been no genetic exchange for too long, which has led to the evolution of reproductive isolation between cats.

Cats are mostly carnivores with prominent canine teeth and can attack prey by ambushing and surrounding them.

During the evolution of cats, a gene called Tas1r2 mutated, resulting in cats being unable to taste sweetness, so cats’ food is mainly Meat, while canines and bears also eat meat, but they still eat plants, so they are omnivores.

Cats are natural hunters, and their body structures have evolved a series of characteristics to adapt to hunting.

First of all, the eyes of cats are mostly in the front of the face, while the eyes of herbivores are mostly on the sides of the face.

The reason why the eyes of herbivores are distributed like this is because herbivores need to observe in real time whether there are any natural enemies approaching. Once a natural enemy approaches, they will All he could do was run. The direction of running and the distance from natural enemies are not within their considerations, so the herbivorous animals that evolved monocular vision remained through natural selection. The eyes on the sides of the face help expand their field of vision.

When predators hunt prey, they don’t need to pay much attention to whether there are natural enemies approaching, so expanding their field of vision will not obviously help them.

However, carnivores need to judge the distance between their prey and themselves in real time. If you use monocular vision, it is easy to make mistakes. Binocular vision can see more three-dimensionally, so carnivores have binocular vision, and cats Most animals have binocular vision.

Furthermore, in order to better bite prey, the sharp canine teeth of carnivores are retained by natural selection, while herbivores need Grinding plant roots so herbivores have flatter teeth.

Also, the eyes of cats will reflect light at night. This is because there is a layer of reflective cells in the retina of cats. This layer of reflective cells can transmit information again. Reflected on the retina, the retina can see more light, so cats have strong night vision.

These characteristics are very helpful for cats to hunt. Coupled with the genetic mutations of some cats during evolution, larger ones in some areas are more likely to survive. For example: lions, tigers, leopards, so they were retained by natural selection. These species are at the top of the local food chain due to their larger size and stronger bite.

I don’t know if you have noticed that cats living in the same place have different body sizes. For example, if they also live in woodland areas, the size of tigers is larger than that of cats. Golden cats are bigger, why is this?

In fact, this may be because the food they hunt is different, which leads to different evolutionary results. Big cats prey on large ungulates. The prey of domestic cats is mainly rodents, and they feed on small animals such as mice, voles, and birds. The prey of lynx is small mammals.

Due to different prey objects, different living environments, and the influence of neutral genes, the size differences between cats are very large.

In addition, after the emergence of humans, because humans need cats to protect granaries to prevent rodents from stealing food, small wild cats have entered human vision. Humans have domesticated them for their own needs, and He has bred some new breeds based on his own preferences, such as smaller cats.

Due to the existence of humans, some breeds that could not survive in nature are now preserved, such as hairless cats and folded-eared cats that cannot reproduce the next generation. . Therefore, the evolution of domestic cats is mainly influenced by humans.

Due to their large size and strong bite force, big cats are threatening to humans. Therefore, humans have not domesticated them, so their body shape is mainly affected by nature.

Cats are one of the most successful species in the world. Not only are they diverse and numerous, some cats even control the behavior of the local food chain. For example, lynxes mainly hunt rabbits. Their presence controls local rabbit populations.

The most famous cats are lions, tigers, leopards and domestic cats. Many people may wonder, why are lions, tigers and leopards so big, while domestic cats are so small?

The earliest cats appeared about 30 million years ago. The common ancestor of all modern cats and saber-toothed cats is the original cat that lived in Europe and West Asia 25 million years ago. By 20 million years ago, the original cat evolved into a false cat, and the descendants of the false cat divided into two major branches, namely saber-tooth cats and true cats.

The common ancestor of modern cats: Protocat

All existing cats belong to the true cat family, and their different species only went their separate ways about 11 million years ago. , the first one to differentiate was the genus Leopard, including the well-known lions, tigers and leopards, and the last one to differentiate was the genus Felis, of which domestic cats are members.

Therefore, tracing back to their origins, domestic cats, lions, tigers and leopards all have the same ancestor, but in subsequent evolution, they adapted to different behaviors in different environments. Life leads to completely different shapes and sizes. Lions, tigers and leopards evolved to adapt to eating large ungulates, so they are getting bigger and bigger, while African wild cats, the ancestors of domestic cats, adapted to evolve to eat rodents as their main food, so they still maintain their ancestors. Such a petite figure. The former is the top predator in nature and the "king of beasts", while the latter is an expert mouse hunter. They are both natural killers and the pride of nature.

The King of Beasts: Lion

Although there are only a few types of cats that are well-known to everyone, they are actually very diverse, with about 40 species, more than half of which are All species are about the same size as domestic cats, or even smaller.

Experts divide cats into three categories based on body size: large cats, medium-sized cats and small cats.

Big cats: There are 7 species in total, including lions, tigers, jaguars, cougars, leopards, cheetahs and snow leopards, and their weight is more than 40 kilograms.

The largest cat: the Siberian tiger

The big cat of the subfamily Felinae: the puma

The cheetah was once classified as a separate subfamily and is now classified as a cat Members of the subfamily

Medium-sized cats: There are 13 species in the subfamily, including clouded leopards of the subfamily Leopardae, Sunda clouded leopards and 11 species of the subfamily Felis. There are many big cats and exotic pets that everyone is familiar with. They are medium-sized cats, such as caracal, serval, Eurasian lynx, Canadian lynx, and bobtail cats. The body size of medium-sized cats ranges from 10 to 40 kilograms, which is right within the body variation range of the genus Lynx.

The largest medium-sized cat: the Eurasian lynx

The medium-sized cat of the subfamily Leopardae: the clouded leopard

Domestic medium-sized cat: Asian gold Cats are regarded as tigers and leopards in the folk

Small cats: including about 20 species of members of the cat subfamily, all of which weigh less than 10 kilograms. The wild type of domestic cat - the African wild cat is a relatively large member of the small cat family. Only a few species such as jungle cats, ocelots, desert cats and slender cats are larger than it. Most small cats are smaller than domestic cats, including clouded cats, black-footed cats, and rusty-spotted cats.

Jungle cat: the largest small cat and the largest cat in the genus Felis

The most common small cat in my country: leopard cat

The most compact cat Cat family: Rusty-spotted cat

It can be seen that cats are not all as big as lions, tigers and leopards. There are many small species like domestic cats. Domestic cats are medium-lower in size in the entire cat family. .

Through the above introduction, everyone should also understand that the reason why domestic cats have not become larger is first of all because the African wild cats, the ancestors of domestic cats, are not large, and domestic cats have been domesticated by humans for less than 5,000 years. Years of history, such a short period of time is not enough to cause major changes in the genes of domestic cats.

The ancestors of domestic cats: African wild cats

Secondly, domestic cats are kept at home by humans, and their main purpose is to catch mice. They have no worries about food and clothing, and have lost the ability to grow in size. power, so the average domestic cat is not only no larger than the African wild cat, but slightly smaller. Humans are currently breeding domestic cat breeds mainly to make them tamer and cuter, rather than bigger. However, humans have bred some larger domestic cat breeds, such as Maine Coon cats.

The largest domestic cat breed: Maine Coon

Cats do not become smaller because they are domesticated, but because cats have embarked on two different paths in their long-term survival and evolution. In the development route, large cats such as lions, tigers and leopards have formed the conditions to occupy the top of the food chain, while other cats have gradually evolved into small cats in order to adapt to the requirements of small space at night, food shortage, and fast hunting speed.

Cats are the animals that most resemble aliens. Perhaps aliens evolved from another humanized branch of cats. Whenever I see its ethereal eyes, people are full of curiosity. and reverie.

The richest cat in the world is a cat raised by a rich man in Europe. Before the rich man died, he left a manor behind. There were several dedicated servants to serve it every day, and such days will continue in the world. After it dies, it is left to its descendants to enjoy.

Kittens are also very powerful. African lynx and civet cats can even prey on animals two or three times larger than themselves. Crocodiles have always been one of the most feared and troublesome animals in the wild, and they can prey on them. The only ones are tigers or leopards!

A few years ago, a video of a lady trampling a cat to death aroused the anger of netizens, so her name, workplace and even family members were retrieved through human flesh, and the denunciation and scolding of her continued. , The impact on her life was not insignificant, and she almost collapsed and almost committed suicide.

The only ones who can control dogs at home are cats

I am the cat research institute that unlocks new ways of scientifically raising cats!

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Actually The questioner has this impression mostly because most of the things we can see, photograph, and record by humans are big cats.

There are many small cats in the world. They are small and very agile, so few people take pictures of them.

For example: It looks soft and cute, but it is the cat with the highest prey success rate (60) - black-footed cat↓

Previous picture Comparison of sitting heights between black-footed cats and Mr. Che (Director of the Cat Research Institute Office) ↓

In addition to black-footed cats, we are familiar with emoticon internet celebrities—— Rabbit cat↓

In fact, it is about the same size as a domestic cat↓

There is also a sand dune cat, which is only 45-55cm long Centimeter↓

Embroidered spotted cat, body length about 45cm↓

Fishing cat, body length 66~85cm ↓

The world of cats is actually more colorful than we imagine~

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Above.

Because only "cats" among the cats choose to be close to humans and live with us. In other words, we did not choose cats, but cats chose us. In the course of thousands of years of evolution, their body shape has changed After certain changes, humans also gave them a name - cats.

I dare not say that the first cat in the world was as big as a tiger, but I dare say that its size was definitely larger than today Generally, domestic cats are big. As for why they have become smaller? There are two main reasons. The first is to cater to people’s preferences. Dogs must have been larger when they were domesticated thousands of years ago. At that time, The only purpose of people domesticating dogs is to look after homes and homes, but now with the development of the times, people's demands for dog sizes have changed. The smaller the size and even the deformed dogs are popular on the market, the same goes for cats. This is the truth.

As for the second reason, it is actually related to people’s needs. If there is a reason for everything people did thousands of years ago, then dogs will Housekeeping, horses can carry goods, chickens, ducks and geese can lay eggs and the meat is edible, so what can cats do? Catching mice of course!

At that time, many countries were deeply troubled by rats. Maybe cats were relatively large at first, but you can imagine the way tigers catch mice. Their huge size makes them Their inflexible movements are not a good solution to the rat problem. Therefore, through continuous screening and elimination, cats with relatively smaller bodies and more flexible movements have been "appreciated" by humans, and their genes can be inherited hereditary. Cats that are not close to humans don't want! Don’t be inflexible! Not for those who are too wild! ...

Although some domestic cats today have almost lost their ability to hunt mice, it has to be said that their ancestors were indeed good hunters.

This is a very interesting question. In my impression, cats are mostly ferocious carnivores of medium size or above. But they all belong to the cat family, so why are cats so small? Let’s explore this interesting question together.

(Overview of cats)

There are three subfamilies of cats: Cheetahinae, Felinae, and Leopardinae.

There is only one animal in the cheetah subfamily, and that is the cheetah. The reason why the cheetah is a separate subfamily is because it is very different from other cats. That is, the cheetah's claws cannot be retracted, unlike other cats. It will be all right.

Next is the subfamily Leopardinae, which is actually the general name for big cats, including clouded leopards (clouded leopards and xun (xun) other clouded leopards) and leopards (lions, tigers, leopards, Jaguar). In other words, neither cheetahs nor jaguars are leopards.

Among all the animals in the subfamily Leopardae, the clouded leopard is the smallest (the total length of the head and tail is about 1.7 meters). The body length (head and tail length) of other leopard subfamily animals is more than 2 meters.

Finally, there is Felinae, which is a general term for small and medium-sized cats. But there are exceptions. The puma belongs to the subfamily Cat, but its body length is close to 2 meters, so the puma is the largest cat subfamily. With the exception of pumas, most animals in the subfamily Felinae are smaller. The cat mentioned in the question is one of the subfamily Felidae.

(Cheetah subfamily)

(Cheetah, an exclusive animal of the subfamily Cheetah)

(Tolerable little kitten)

From the above brief introduction, we can see that the large cats are animals of the subfamily Leopardae and Cheetahinae. They have three major similarities.

01 are all carnivores living in the wild. All animals in the subfamily Leopardinae and Cheetahinae are animals found in nature, and they are all carnivores.

02 Size of prey. Most large cats feed on medium and large herbivores, which means that the wild environment and the size of the prey determine the final form of these animals.

03 Most of them are solitary animals. Among all leopard subfamilies and cheetah subfamilies, except for lions, they are solitary animals. They need to hunt their own food. Therefore, their large size is more suitable for their survival.

Cats are the smallest cats. There are two reasons why they are so small.

01 Living environment Cats mostly live together with humans. They can eat without hunting. Especially today, as living standards are improving day by day, the treatment of cats has been rising, and many people even lament that "people are not as good as cats."

02 Food Even for wild cats, their prey are mostly small rodents, insects, small mammals, etc. These animals don’t need to be very large at all to capture. Therefore, a cat’s food habits determine its size.

In summary, the size of an animal is determined by its living environment and feeding habits. Although the ancestors of cats are the same, in the long history of evolution, different Animals have different ways of living. And different ways of survival determine their respective forms.

The tiger among the cats can weigh up to 350 kilograms, while the smallest cat only weighs about 1 kilogram. The gap is 350 times. It cannot be explained clearly by a "disparity". .

So, why are tigers, lions, leopards and other cats that are also members of the cat family huge in size, while cats are so thin?

The first thing I thought about was human beings. Why are they all human beings? There is such a big difference in height and body shape between Chinese and Western countries, and they are all Chinese. There is also a big difference in height between the north and the south. Some Brothers, or even twins, have the same parents, but their statures are quite different... Many people may say that it is determined by genes. This is true. In addition to genes, there are also modifications of nature and the environment for evolution. !

Cats are divided into 3 subfamilies, Cheetahinae (such as cheetahs, now there is also a saying that it is merged into Felinae), Felinae (Chinese Small cats, such as common cats, as well as larger ones, such as pumas), subfamily Panthera (including lions, tigers, leopards, etc.). ***There are 14 genera and 38 species.

The larger category

Lions and tigers deserve the title. African lions are the only dimorphic cats. The average weight of male lions reaches 240kg and the body length can reach 3.2 rice. Among tigers, the Siberian tiger is the largest. The Siberian tiger, also known as the "Siberian tiger", can reach a length of 2.5m and a weight of 350kg.

Very small size

Cats are generally small in size. Among them, the spotted cat can be said to be the smallest, weighing only one-third of the tiger. The spotted cat is only about the size of a leaf and weighs about 1kg, with the larger ones only weighing 2kg. Compared with the same period last year, an adult domestic cat can weigh about 5-10 kilograms, which is equivalent to 5-10 spotted cats.

The common ancestor of modern cats: Protocat

Although cats are extremely different in size, they all have the same characteristics. The ancestor of the cat is the original cat. The earliest cats appeared 30 million years ago. The common ancestors of all modern cats and saber-toothed tigers were proto-cats that lived in Europe and West Asia 25 million years ago. By about 20 million years ago, the original cat evolved into a false cat, and the descendants of the false cat divided into two major branches, namely saber-tooth cats and true cats. Cats, ligers, tigers and leopards all have the same ancestor, but during subsequent evolution, they adapted to different lives in different environments, resulting in completely different shapes and sizes.

Why are cats so small and other cats so big?

First, lions, tigers and leopards all live in the wild and are carnivores. Animals have evolved to adapt to feeding on large hoofed animals, so they get bigger and bigger. In addition, their prey are also large, so if they want to survive, they will not be able to survive without growing in size. In other words, wild environments and prey have tempered them.

Secondly, African wild cats, the ancestors of domestic cats, evolved to adapt to eating rodents as their staple food, so they still maintain the petite stature of their ancestors. Nowadays, most cats are raised by humans. It is true that domestic cats cannot even catch mice. They wait for their owners to feed them every day, and they are quite picky about food. Most cats eat meat and cat food. They are not interested.

Always, as the top predators in nature, big cats such as lions, tigers and leopards are the "kings of beasts". They need larger bodies to control wild animals. The living environment, and cats are at most good at catching mice, but today's domestic cats "open their mouths when they eat", so it is their way of survival that determines their respective evolutionary directions.

All cats descend from the same ancestor, but due to environmental adaptation, some cats became smaller and fed on smaller prey. Because they are cute, humans have brought them back from the wild and adopted them. The word domestication cannot be used for cats. Their wildness and status as "cat owners" prove everything. From then until now, these cats are known as domestic cats. But there are still some wild breeds of cats that are very small and have not been domesticated.

Domestic cats often come from feral cats that are similar in size to our domestic cats. In addition to big cats, some cats may be much larger than domestic cats whose temperaments are not suitable for domestication. Our domestic cats have been bred for thousands of years, often for rodent control, religious beliefs and personal preference.

If domestic cats and felids such as ligers and leopards come from the same ancestor, why are they generally smaller than leopards? I am also very confused. Maybe cats cannot be completely tamed and their excessive size is dangerous to humans. After all, cats are one of the most powerful species in nature and can kill animals three times larger than themselves. Even cats as small as lynx are a threat to humans. For wild and untamable cats, humans will only choose breeds that are the size of today’s domestic cats for breeding, so that they can use cats without threatening themselves.

Not only cats, domestic species and humans are bred specifically to a certain size based on their needs.

Compared with domestic cats, the prey of large beasts such as leopards and other small and medium-sized wild cats range from elephants and bison to mice and frogs. The differences in prey objects and environments also promote the feline The differentiation of animals has gone through tens of millions of years of evolution and mutation, from a single ancestor to the current large cat family of different sizes.

If you think that in the large cat family, most of them are animals as large as lions and tigers. And small animals, such as cats, are more unique, which is really a bit taken for granted. Because in the large and diverse family of cats, there are extremely many sizes, whether large, medium or small. We can look at this issue from the perspective of animal taxonomy:

According to classic taxonomy, cats can be divided into three subfamilies - Cheetahinae, Felinae, and Leopardinae. Of course, in contemporary molecular systematics, the Cheetahinae is included in the Feline subfamily.

In the subfamily Leopardae, there are two types: clouded leopard and leopard. The clouded leopard is actually a very small animal, so some people call it the smallest big cat (smaller than the larger small cats). Some people simply classify it as a small cat. They are generally only 70~110cm in size and weigh about 17~35kg, so they are very small!

The genus Leopard, another genus in the subfamily Leopardae, has distinctive characteristics, and among them are the most well-known animals. The genus Leopard contains 5 categories - leopard, snow leopard, tiger, lion and jaguar. They are the most powerful predators, and they are the most familiar large carnivores.

Leopard is the largest animal among cats. It goes without saying how big it is. Take the Siberian tiger, the leader among them, as an example: its body length is about 2.3 meters and its weight is about 250kg. This is the real king of beasts!

Let’s talk about the subfamily Felidae in the cat family. The subfamily Felinae is the largest branch of the cat family, with many members and different body shapes. Of course they are all small cats, but from the largest puma (American golden cat), to the tiny spotted cat, there is a real variety.

There are 11 genera and 30 species in the subfamily Felis, among which the genus Felis must be the most well-known. The genus Cat is divided into jungle cats, wild cats, black-footed cats, and Orin cats. Our daily domestic cats and pet cats are domesticated from them.

In addition, the subfamily Felidae also includes the genus: Rabbit cat, leopard cat genus, caracal genus, serval cat genus, lynx genus, golden cat genus, striped cat genus, tiger cat genus, cheetah genus, African golden cat genus, American golden cat genus.

In fact, except for cheetahs, American golden cats and other animals, they are in the middle range among cats. Animals such as rabbits and ocelots are the same size as domestic cats. The caracal, serval, lynx, etc. are only slightly larger than domestic cats, and may even be smaller than the Maine Coon, the largest pet cat.

So not all cats are relatively large, they come in a wide range of sizes from small to large. Therefore, there is nothing to worry about the small size of cats. It is just the result of evolution and differentiation under the right time and place.

When most people think of cats, they think of cute cats. In fact, there are also larger and more ferocious cats, such as tigers, lions, leopards, etc. As both cats, why are cats so different in size from other cats?

The ancestors of cats are all the same, but different types of cats may be caused by crustal movement or climate change or different migration routes. Because of adaptation to the environment and other reasons, there will be body shapes of different sizes. Cats are mostly raised by humans or eat mice and birds for a living, and they don't need to be too big.

Therefore, in natural evolution, the body size will be relatively small. Cats such as tigers and leopards generally live in deep forests or grasslands and need to hunt larger animals for food, such as zebras, giraffes, etc., so they need a larger size to adapt to the environment.

Therefore, the size of felines can be said to be a manifestation of survival of the fittest and the result of natural selection.