That bastion of godless, Darwinian materialism, the New York Times, tells us all about the evolution of cats. But since their article requires registration, you can check out the same stuff at The Loom.
Typing slowly for the thinking impaired: "Anonymous" in the comments section indulges in something resembling humour that I'm sure is a real hit among his similarly-uneducated drinking buddies:
Yes, it's quite amazing how felines "evolved" from... er... other felines. Next thing you'll tell us is that canines "evolved" from other canines.
Hoo boy, what a comedian! Apparently, some folks still haven't wrapped their brains around the Internets and "Google" where, in short order, one finds sites like this:
EVOLUTION OF MODERN CATS (SUMMARY)
Carnivorous mammals evolved from Miacids small pine marten-like insectivores that lived 60 million - 55 million years ago. The miacids split into two lines: Miacidae and Viverravidae. Miacidae gave rise to Arctoidea/Canoidea group (bears and dogs) while Viverravidae gave rise to Aeluroidea/Feloidea group (cats, hyenas, civets, mongooses) around 48 million years ago. The Viverravidae also gave rise to a group called Nimravidae. The Nimravids were cat-like creatures that evolved in parallel with true cats; they are not part of true cat lineage and have left no living descendents.
Well, holy crap, how about that? Cats evolved from things that were ... well, not quite cats. Shocking, I tell you, shocking.
Establishing that dogs evolved from things that were not quite dogs is left as an exercise for the reader.
3 comments:
Yes, it's quite amazing how felines "evolved" from... er... other felines. Next thing you'll tell us is that canines "evolved" from other canines.
Dear anonymous:
I guess you missed the places where Zimmer referred to "cat-like fossils" and "the ancestors of domestic cats" and "the common ancestor of all living cats" and ...
Oh, fuck it. Why do I bother?
"Cat-like fossils" and "the ancestors of domestic cats" still equals "felines," genius.
But then, you probably think "six" and "a half-dozen" mean two completely different things.
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