You're a cat!

These beasts are unusual, inter alia, that all types look remarkably similar, for example, it is astonishing how little differences between the Tigers and cat home. The question of the ancestors of domestic cats is still the subject of discussion. According to Zoological classification belongs to the domestic cat (Cute catus) to cats (Carnivora), the big family (Felidae) and the subfamily of small cats (Felinae).

What are the common feline?

a round face and a relatively short snout
well developed big blockbusters
soft fur
usually a long, very flexible, the shape of the tail
on the front feet have five toes on the back of four
they have sharp senses
large, forward heading eyes allow them to accurately estimate distance
the pupils of the eyes may download according to light intensity, but also open for night vision
the long, stiff, very sensitive tactile beard for orientation
a well-developed sense of smell
Jacobsonovy olfactory and gustatory organ
they are territorial and fight together, if an intruder enters their territory

Time long past

About 65 to 70 million years ago, at the time of the dinosaurs, appeared relatively inconspicuous animals. They were mammals, small with long noses, hmyzozravi, climbing trees and not very bright. Some were herbivores, others prefer meat hunted food and diverse game. These carnivorous mammals were the first ancestors, thus cats. The first carnivorous mammals, they're called creodonti, had a long body, short legs and Paws with claws. Their brain was very small, but the mouth was armed with 44 teeth suitable for killing. From the creodontu gradually developed a whole series of cats. Low intelligence, however, led to the gradual disappearance of the disease, and 10 million years eventually extinct. Before that, however, from certain forms of creodontu the new animals, miacidi. They were small and shy, the inhabitants of the planet, but with a much larger brain. During the long period of miacidu have developed all modern carnivores, including cats, psovitych and cibetkovitych. Feline is probably odstepily from ancient species cibetek.

40 million years ago there was an animal, which was half-small Indian Civet, half-cat. Scientists called Proailurus. Have long legs and a tail, but unlike true cats was ploskochodec (doslapovala to the ground with feet).

25 million years ago appeared the first cat that stepping on almost fingertips. Had the appearance of the cats and teeth with long, sharp fangs. Scientists have called it Pseudoailurus.

The first cats

At least 12 million years ago, the country's first real cats have appeared in many different forms. Throughout Europe and in certain areas of the Middle East, lived a cat Martelliho, which has been extinct for some 10 million years. It is assumed that was the direct ancestor of modern small cats, from which later developed the domestic cat. In the period from 600 to 900 thousand years it was also the wild cat, which gradually spread throughout Europe, Asia and Africa in the three main types: the European wild cat, African Wildcat and the Asian steppe cat. Descended from cats home is the African Wildcat and the Asian steppe cat.

Domestication

Its origin has a cat in the Middle East. The bones of cats blond found in caves, ancient people. If you had hunted the cat as a food, or her acting and he hated beauty that helped him in the fight against pest? It seems that the man-Hunter led hunting ability of cats to appreciate and over time it began to admire and worship. The ancient Egyptians already let the cat the protection of its stocks of grain and worshipped as a deity. And Egypt is the place of origin of the domestic cats without a family tree, the kind we know today. The ancient Egyptians took cats respected and buried the dead cat. Many mummified cats help scientists determine that the first domestic cats were blond.

From Egypt they brought businessmen cats into Italy and then gradually spread throughout Europe. With the first colonists, the cat into the new world.

Cat with domestication was much longer time than any other domestic animal. And even if the cat was domesticated at least 5000 years ago, keeping on the basis of selection (breeding) and with the first cats with the pedigree we met up in the mid-19th century.Â of the century.

The emergence of breeds

As with all other domestic animals, and cats have occurred in the course of the domestication of many mutations that change the color,hair and body shape.

Systematic breeding cats exists around the world, approximately a hundred years and the important role played in this period a number of factors: a man stopped to prefer the usefulness of cats, and began to focus on their appearance and beauty; to determine the breed to provide characters that one specific breed different from the other, for example. fur colour, but also a strong form of the title or the construction of the body; again there were the results of the experiments of Abbot j. g. Has (1824-1886), which examined the genetics, a doctrine about heredity, keepers can proceed in a targeted and exploited the knowledge of the inheritance of coloration, etc.

At the same time, there were many breeds, which became extinct from lack of interest, or for other reasons. But even today still don't know exactly how many other breeds have become extinct, without them even knowing breeders.

Breeding cats is now engaged in hundreds of thousands of people around the world. Gradually they become increasingly more social animals kept for the beauty and nobility, and not only to rodenticides, as was the case previously.

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