I have a orange tabby! he is my adorable little lion I call him. I love him so very much. He is my true love. I was watching Animal Planet & they said "dogs" are descended from Wolves. SO I was wondering about kitties!
2006-07-03 01:55:10 · 13 answers · asked by Anonymous in Pets ➔ Cats
domestic cats and lions likely have a common ancestor, but cats are not descended from lions.
2006-07-03 01:58:39 · answer #1 · answered by Black Fedora 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Actually they got that wrong. Dogs and wolves are virtually the same species. Dogs are just domesticated wolves. All of the family Felidae, which includes all the cats from Panthera tigris (the Tiger) to Felis catus (your tabby) are related. That does not mean that little cats are "descended" from big cats. What it means is that a very very long time ago, shortly after the big death comet knocked off the dinosaurs, a little mammal called "Miacis" poked its head out of it's den. Miacis was a weasel sort of thing. Since it was not going to be stepped on by a dinosaur any more, Miacis went on a binge. It started to reproduce. And fill up all the ecological niches that were left vacant in the big die-off. What scientists think is that Miacis and her descendants became what we now call mammals. Some of them became bears, raccoons, and dogs and wolves. Another branch of descendants became weasels and cats.
Long story short, Tabby is not the great grand child of Tiger. Tabby and Tiger are the many times great grandchildren of some cat like creature who is the many times great grand child of a thing that was sort of a weasel that just missed getting stepped on by a dinosaur. Did I explain that OK?
There are many books on this. Try "The Tribe of Tiger" by, Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, and "The Spell of the Tiger" by Sy Montgomery on the connections between big and little cats. Read Steven Jay Gould for a better understanding of evolution and natural selection.
I also have a Tabby. I refer to her as my living room lion or my tiny tiger.
2006-07-03 02:53:18 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Domestic cats belong to the same Family as lions, but they are descended from The african wildcat (Felis sylvestris lybica) which is a much smaller animal than a lion.
http://www.catsurvivaltrust.org/afrides.htm
2006-07-03 02:26:29 · answer #3 · answered by canislupus 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
NO! I tell you the same thing I tell the evolution opponents who insist evolution claims humans come from monkeys-- they have common ancestors-- cats are not directly descended from lions. Domestic dogs are descended from wolf-like canines but this happened with human intervention.
2006-07-03 02:01:44 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
they must be my kitten just stalked then tried to kill my dog i tried to get her off him but she wont let go..maybe i should call 911 and report a lion attacking a dog..i'll be out of the loonie bin in a few days i hope
2006-07-03 02:01:57 · answer #5 · answered by . 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
yep the cat family extends all the way from kitten to king of the jungle
2006-07-03 01:58:12 · answer #6 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Related, not descended
2006-07-03 01:59:44 · answer #7 · answered by oracleguru 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Lions belong in the cat family........
so i think lions are the decendants of the cats....,,,,,!!!!
2006-07-03 01:59:48 · answer #8 · answered by -=jC=- 1 · 2⤊ 0⤋
yes cats are cute cute cute.............i have a orange tiger his name is Milo Fitzgerold i love him so much.............wish his happy birthday July 8th he'll be 3
2006-07-03 01:58:01 · answer #9 · answered by frenchvanilla414@sbcglobal.net 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They are related but they did not decend from them
2006-07-03 01:59:47 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋