Felinae

Not to be confused with Felidae.

The Felinae is a subfamily of the Felidae, also called small cats, which are distinguished by a bony hyoid, because of which they can purr but not roar.^[2] Other authors have proposed an alternative definition for this subfamily, as comprising only the living conical-toothed cat genera with two tribes, the Felini and Pantherini, and excluding the extinct sabre-toothed Machairodontinae.^[3][4]

Felinae[1] Temporal range: Miocene–Holocene, 9–0 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Clockwise, an ocelot, a European wildcat, a cougar and a cheetah
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Suborder:	Feliformia
Family:	Felidae
Subfamily:	Felinae Fischer von Waldheim, 1817
Type genus
Felis Linnaeus, 1758
Genera
See §Taxonomy
Native ranges of Felinae

Characteristics

The members of the Felinae have retractile claws that are protected by at least one cutaneous lobe. Their larynx is kept close to the base of the skull by an ossified hyoid.^[5] They can purr owing to the vocal folds being shorter than 6 mm (0.24 in).^[6][7] The cheetah Acinonyx does not have cutaneous sheaths for guarding claws.^[8]

Taxonomy

The term 'Felini' was first used in 1817 by Gotthelf Fischer von Waldheim, at the time for all the cat species that had been proposed as belonging to the genus Felis.^[9] In 1917, Reginald Innes Pocock also subordinated the following genera to the Felinae that had been proposed in the course of the 19th century: Lynx, Puma, Leptailurus, Prionailurus, Pardofelis, Leopardus, Herpailurus, Neofelis and four more.^[5]

The Felinae and Pantherinae probably diverged about 11.5 million years ago. The genera within the Felinae diverged between 10.67 and 4.23 million years ago.^[10][11]

Today, the following living genera and species are recognised as belonging to the Felinae:^[2]

Genus	Species	Image of type species	Range
Acinonyx Brookes, 1828[12]	Cheetah (A. jubatus) Schreber, 1777[13]		Africa and Southwestern Asia
Caracal Gray, 1843[14]	Caracal (C. caracal) (Schreber, 1776)[15] African golden cat (C. aurata) (Temminck, 1827)[16]		Africa and Southwestern Asia
Catopuma Severtzov, 1858[17]	Asian golden cat (C. temminckii) (Vigors & Horsfield, 1827)[18] Bay cat (C. badia) (Gray, 1874)[19]		Southeastern Asia
Felis Linnaeus, 1758[20]	Domestic cat (F. catus) Linnaeus, 1758[20] European wildcat (F. silvestris) Schreber, 1777[21] Jungle cat (F. chaus) Schreber, 1777[22] African wildcat (F. lybica) Forster, 1780[23] Black-footed cat (F. nigripes) Burchell, 1824[24] Sand cat (F. margarita) Loche, 1858[25] Chinese mountain cat (F. bieti) Milne-Edwards, 1892[26]		Afro-Eurasia Worldwide (Domestic Cat)
Herpailurus Severtzov, 1858[17]	Jaguarundi (H. yagouaroundi) (Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1803)[27]		Central and Southern America
Leopardus Gray, 1842[28]	Ocelot (L. pardalis) (Linnaeus, 1758)[29] Oncilla (L. tigrinus) (Schreber, 1775)[30] Pampas cat (L. colocolo) (Molina, 1782)[31] Kodkod (L. guigna) (Molina, 1782)[31] Margay (L. wiedii) (Schinz, 1821)[32] Geoffroy's cat (L. geoffroyi) (d'Orbigny & Gervais, 1844)[33] Andean mountain cat (L. jacobitus) (Cornalia, 1865)[34] Southern tiger cat (L. guttulus) (Hensel, 1872)[35]		Central and Southern America
Leptailurus Severtzov, 1858[17]	Serval (L. serval) (Schreber, 1775)[36]		Africa
Lynx Kerr, 1792[37]	Eurasian lynx (L. lynx) (Linnaeus, 1758)[38] Bobcat (L. rufus) (Schreber, 1777)[39] Canada lynx (L. canadensis) Kerr, 1792[37] Iberian lynx (L. pardinus) (Temminck, 1827)[40]		Northern Hemisphere
Otocolobus Brandt, 1842[41]	Pallas's cat (O. manul) (Pallas, 1776)[42]		Central Asia
Pardofelis Severtzov, 1858[17]	Marbled cat (P. marmorata) (Martin, 1836)[43]		Southeastern Asia
Prionailurus Severtzov, 1858[17]	Leopard cat (P. bengalensis) (Kerr, 1792)[44] Sunda leopard cat (P. javanensis) (Desmarest, 1816)[45] Flat-headed cat (P. planiceps) (Vigors & Horsfield, 1827)[18] Fishing cat (P. viverrinus) (Bennett, 1833)[46] Rusty-spotted cat (P. rubiginosus) (Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1834)[47]		Southeastern and Eastern Asia
Puma Jardine 1834[48]	Cougar (P. concolor) Linnaeus, 1771[49]		Americas

Extinct taxa

Genus	Species	Image
Felis	Felis lunensis
Acinonyx	A. aicha A. intermedius A. pardinensis
Lynx	L. issiodorensis L. rexroadensis[50][51] L. thomasi
Puma	P. lacustris P. pardoides P. pumoides
Leopardus	L. vorohuensis
Leptofelis Salesa et al., 2017	L. vallesiensis
Miracinonyx Adams, 1979[52]	M. inexpectatus M. trumani
Pratifelis Hibbard, 1934	P. martini
Pristifelis Salesa et al., 2012	P. attica
Sivapanthera Kretzoi, 1929[53]	S. arvernensis S. brachygnathus S. linxiaensis S. padhriensis S. pleistocaenicus S. potens
Sivapardus Bikr, 1969[citation needed]	S. punjabiensis
Vishnufelis Pilgrim, 1932	V. laticeps

Phylogeny

The phylogenetic relationships of Felinae are shown in the following cladogram:^[54][55][2]

Felinae

Felinae Domestic cat lineage Felis Felis catus (domestic cat) Felis lybica (African wildcat) Felis bieti (Chinese mountain cat) Felis silvestris (European wildcat) †Felis lunensis (Martelli's cat) Felis margarita (Sand cat) Felis nigripes (Black-footed cat) Felis chaus (Jungle cat) †Pristifelis †Pristifelis attica Leopard cat lineage Prionailurus Prionailurus bengalensis (Leopard cat) Prionailurus javanensis (Sunda leopard cat) Prionailurus viverrinus (Fishing cat) Prionailurus planiceps (Flat-headed cat) Prionailurus rubiginosus (Rusty-spotted cat) Otocolobus Otocolobus manul (Pallas's cat) Puma lineage Puma Puma concolor (Cougar) †Puma pardoides (Eurasian puma) †Puma pumoides †Miracinonyx †Miracinonyx inexpectatus †Miracinonyx trumani Herpailurus Herpailurus yagouaroundi (Jaguarundi) Acinonyx Acinonyx jubatus (Cheetah) †Acinonyx pardinensis (Giant cheetah) †Acinonyx aicha †Acinonyx intermedius †Sivapanthera †Sivapanthera brachygnathus †Sivapanthera pleistocaenicus †Sivapanthera potens †Sivapanthera linxiaensis †Sivapanthera padhriensis †Sivapanthera arvernensis Lynx Lynx lineage Lynx lynx (Eurasian lynx) Lynx pardinus (Iberian lynx) Lynx canadensis (Canada lynx) Lynx rufus (Bobcat) †Lynx issiodorensis (Issoire lynx) †Lynx rexroadensis †Lynx thomasi Leopardus Ocelot lineage Leopardus pardalis (Ocelot) Leopardus wiedii (Margay) Leopardus tigrinus (Oncilla) Leopardus guigna (Kodkod) Leopardus geoffroyi (Geoffroy's cat) Leopardus guttulus (Southern tiger cat) Leopardus colocolo (Pampas cat) Leopardus jacobita (Andean mountain cat) †Leopardus vorohuensis Caracal lineage Caracal Caracal caracal (Caracal) Caracal aurata (African golden cat) Leptailurus Leptailurus serval (Serval) Bay cat lineage Catopuma Catopuma badia (Bay cat) Catopuma temminckii (Asian golden cat) Pardofelis Pardofelis marmorata (Marbled cat) †Pratifelis †Pratifelis martini †Leptofelis †Leptofelis vallesiensis sensu stricto Pantherinae †Miopanthera †Miopanthera pamiri

sensu lato

See also

• Cats portal
• List of felids