Feline
Feline is a cat or other member of the cat family.
Felidae is a family of mammals in the order Carnivora,
colloquially referred to as cats, and constitutes a clade.
A member of this family is also called a felid.
The term "cat" refers both to felids in general and specifically to the
domestic cat (Felis catus).
Feline species exhibit the most diverse fur pattern of all terrestrial carnivores.
Cats have retractile claws, slender muscular bodies and strong flexible forelimbs.
Their teeth and facial muscles allow for a powerful bite. They are all obligate carnivores,
and most are solitary predators ambushing or stalking their prey. Wild cats occur in Africa,
Europe, Asia and the Americas. Some wild cat species are adapted to forest habitats, some to
arid environments, and a few also to wetlands and mountainous terrain. Their activity patterns
range from nocturnal and crepuscular to diurnal, depending on their preferred prey species.
Traditionally, five subfamilies have been distinguished within the Felidae based on phenotypical
features: the Felinae, the Pantherinae, the Acinonychinae (cheetahs), the extinct Machairodontinae,
and the extinct Proailurinae. Molecular phylogenetic analysis suggests that living (extant) felids fall
into eight lineages (clades). The placement of the cheetah within the Puma lineage invalidates the
traditional subfamily Acinonychinae, and recent sources use only two subfamilies for extant genera.
The number of accepted species in Felidae has been around 40 since the 18th century, though research,
especially modern molecular phylogenetic analysis, has over time adjusted the generally accepted genera
as well as the divisions between recognized subspecies, species, and population groups. In addition to
the extant species listed here, over 30 fossil genera have been described; these are divided into the subfamilies Felinae,
Pantherinae, Proailurinae, and Machairodontinae. This final subfamily includes the genus Smilodon,
known as the saber-toothed tiger, which went extinct around 10,000 years ago. The earliest known felid genus is Proailurus,
part of Proailurinae, which lived approximately 25 million years ago in Eurasia.