Where do cats come from?

Mandry asked the paleontologist a question.

The history of our pets began at the dawn of the Mesozoic era with the appearance of the first mammals.

Triassic period. 240 million years ago. Teromorphic (animal-like) reptiles, such as theriodonts, dominate the land. In the face of competition, some small beast-like reptiles are pushed into cool swamps and shady thickets, which leads to a leap in adaptation. Reptiles develop a woolly coat, paws are located under the body, warm blood supply develops, the brain grows, and babies are fed by mammary glands. This is the case with the cynodont, one of the first mammals on the planet (and therefore the earliest ancestor of the cat).

The Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods have passed, dinosaurs are dying out as a result of global cooling, but warm-blooded mammals survive and firmly occupy a dominant place in the future of the planet.

In the Oligocene Age (25 million years ago), we see the ancestor of the cat family itself. This is Proailurus. Proailurus was of dense build, slightly larger than a domestic cat, and weighed about 9 kg. It was distinguished by its long body, long tail, and relatively short legs. It had large eyes, sharp teeth, and claws. The claws were partially retractable. It spent most of its time in trees.

The fossa is a modern predator from the suborder of felines, similar in appearance and lifestyle to the proaillurus
And finally, the modern domestic cat (Felis catus) appeared 130,000 years ago from two branches of felines – the forest cat (Felis silvestris) and the steppe cat (Felis lybica).