The Last First Cat

From tabby to tiger, Pseudaelurus is a probable ancestor of all cats.

Much has been said about the first known cat, Proailurus. With its long tail, low-slung body, and catlike features it holds a hallowed place as the first cat of them all. (Unless an older one is found!) This, however, is not another article praising Proailurus.

After the fall of the dinosaurs but before the more familiar megafauna of the Ice Ages appeared, there was a long, warm period during which mammals diversified into many fascinating and sometimes bizarre forms. Most of those lineages are extinct, but the ancestors of today’s mammals were all roaming the earth at the time too, and becoming more and more recognizable as the forms we recognize today. Cats were not the first catlike creatures to stalk the grassy hills of North America, but that is a story for another day. Cats are more specialized for meat-eating than canines, and as “obligate carnivores” they must consume meat. They must acquire taurine from outside sources. In the Miocene, these early cats were only just coming into their own.

Proailurus passed the cat mantle on to its probable heir, Pseudaelurus (meaning “false cat” although it is not false). This next cat has received considerably less hype. Pseudaelurus was also a very ancient cat, built somewhat similarly to Proailurus…