First Felids

OF MIACIS AND MEN

     During the Eocene (55 million years ago), a small weasel-like mammal first appeared. It was born in a time of violent change. Active volcanoes formed mountain ranges. Huge ravines filled with water, forming seas such as the Atlantic and Indian oceans. Much of the world was hot, damp, tropical jungle.

     Deep within rain forests of palms and deciduous shrubs, the miacis hunted. For you see, this was the great grandmother of all the carnivores. By now there were the first tiny horses and bats.  The miacis stalked through the undergrowth on short legs, ready to spring upon whatever unsuspecting prey it could find. It also had no problem climbing trees. Then, weasel-like, it held on tenaciously with sharp teeth. Like raccoons, miacis also had grinding teeth, suggesting that it was omnivorous and could eat fruit if the hunting went poorly.  The versatile creature not only prospered, it adapted readily to new climatic conditions and types of prey. From the miacis, there would be great diversity in evolution.

     By the Oligocene (37.5 million years ago) , the earth had cooled into a more pleasantly warm climate. In some regions, the weathers settled into a more seasonal pattern with hot summers and cold winters. Grasslands appeared, giving rise to more species of herbivores like deer and miniature elephants.  The first primates appeared in the trees of the forests. The changes in climate and types of prey available forced miacis to diversify. It was time for miacis conquer new prey.

     Miacis evolved into various other carnivores. Some, like the weasel family, still resembled miacis closely. Of the cat-like carnivores, the first, the hoplophoneus became the saber and scimitar cats. The second group, dinictis, evolved into the first true cats.

     By the time the Miocene (24 million years ago) arrived, Dinictus had split into some 95 species of cats. About 40 of these still exist in recognizable forms today. Their prey included many modern looking mammals. And, oh yes, amongst the prey were apes.

     Fossil evidence clearly shows that many of the new carnivores found our ancestors delicious. (There's nothing like a hungry sabertooth to inspire you to make fire and craft some weapons.) Still, all the carnivores have had a much more profound effect on our psyches than just fear of being eaten. Humans sought to emulate the perfect hunters, capture their grace and strength, and be just as fearsome and successful as any cave lion or bear. They drew the images of the hunters and prey on cave walls, decorated their bodies with tokens such as teeth and claws, and claimed the first animal totems. The children and grandchildren of the miacis had become our first gods. The celebration of hunter and prey became our first rituals. Thus Artemis Miacis became the midwife of religious thought in human beings.

Miacis resembled these modern fossa

Humble Beginnings

The many-time-great grandmother of all modern carnivores was the small, weasel-like mammal known as Miacis. Miacis appeared in the late Paleocene (60-55 million years ago. Miacis had brains that were relatively larger than those of the creodonts (another group of early carnivorous mammals), and the increase in brain size as compared with body size probably reflects an increase in intelligence.

Miacis was well suited for a tree climbing lifestyle with needle sharp claws, and had limbs and joints that resemble those of modern carnivores. It's believed that Miacis was probably an agile forest dweller that hunted smaller animals and may have also have eaten eggs and fruit. If this was the case, Miacis would have been considered more of an omnivore than an exclusive carnivore.

Literary Miacis

In the novel Darkwing, the prehistoric prequel to Kenneth Oppel's Silverwing trilogy, several miacis take the plunge into becoming carnivores. Led by Carnassial, the felids force a colony of chiropters (preflight bats) to leave their island. Although they could have easily been made into one dimensional villains, the felids are just following their natural inclinations: hunt prey and eat meat.

The fates of Carnassial and his mate Panthera are uncertain at the novel's conclusion. Hopefully, the felids will return in a sequel sometime.

The felid names in Darkwing include Carnassial, Panthera, Patriofelis, Katzen, Gerik, and Miacis. As far as we know, these are the only Miacis characters in literature.

Proailurus photo-illustration by John Burkitt

Proailurus

At the height of the Nimravid occupation of North America, during the late Oligocene and Miocene (25 million years ago), Proailurus lived in Europe and Asia. Although some studies placed this cat sized mammal in the Feloidea superfamily that includes civets, mongooses, and hyenas; most studies place it as a true felid.

Indeed, Proailurus was just a little larger than a domestic cat (about 20 lbs.) and had a long tail, large eyes and sharp claws and teeth Its claws would have been retractable to some extent. Like its Miacis ancestor, Proailurus lived and hunted in the trees.

All the major felid lines, including the sabertooth cats of the machairodontines, are descended from this first cat.

Some drawings of Pseudaelurus resemble this modern ocelot

The successor to Proailurus appeared about 20-8 million years ago. The first felid to reach North America, Pseudaelurus became the ancestor of all felines and pantherines as well as the extinct machairodont sabertooths.

Pseudaelurus was agile and slender. Its short legs suggest that, like Miacis and Proailurus, it spent most of its time hunting in the trees.

Although the first species of Pseudaelurus were the size of a domestic cat, later species evolved into cougar-sized proportions. The larger species also sported elongated canines - the fore-runner of the sabertooth cat.

By this time, Pseudaelurus walked on its toes and may have resembled a small leopard.

Pseudaelurus, in the past, have also been called Schizailurus by some taxonomists.

Schizailurus Legacy

18 million years ago, Schizailurus (AKA Pseudaelurus) gave rise to the Felidae. The first of the modern Felids were the early cheetahs of North America. True cheetahs are believed to have evolved around 7 million years ago. Recent studies show Miracinonyx was probably ancestral to both cheetahs and puma and was intermediate in type between these two modern species.

Around 12 million years ago, genus Felis appeared and eventually gave rise to many of our small cats. Two of the first modern Felis species were the extinct Felis lunensis (Martelli's cat), and the currently living Felis manul (Manul or Pallas's Cat). Other extinctx Felis species include F attica, F bituminosa, F daggetti, F issiodorensis (Issoire Lynx), F lunensis and F vorohuensis. The ancestor of modern Felis species was F attica (late Miocene).

Genus Panthera ("biting cats" or "roaring cats") genera evolved around 3 million years ago.

YOUR GUIDE TO THE EPOCHS:

PALEOCENE EPOCH - 65 million years - 55 million years ago. It is the 1st epoch of the Cenozoic Era and marks the beginning of the "Age of the Mammals". Marsupials appear as well as the first creodonts. By the late Paleocene, Miacis - the ancestor of all carnivora - appears.

EOCENE EPOCH - 55 million - 33 million years ago. Rodents are the predominant small mammal. Early horse, elephants, and rhinos appear. The earliest meateaters, the creodonts, include several catlike species known as the oxyaenids. The middle Eocene gives rise to carnivores: the nimravids, but they aren't true cats yet.

OLIGOCENE EPOCH - 33 million - 23 million years ago. It is the third and final epoch of the Paleocene period. True felines (Proailurus) first appear.

MIOCENE EPOCH - begins 23 million years - 5 million years ago. It is the first epoch of the Neogene period. It is also the longest epoch of the Cenozoic Era, spanning 20 million years. The nimravids go extinct near the end of the Miocene. Pseudaelurus is the last common ancestor for felines and the machairodontinae. The marsupial Thylacosmilus appears in South America.

PLIOCENE EPOCH - 5 million years - 1.8 million years ago. It is the second and final epoch of the Neogene period. Hyaenas, thylacoleo, and early sabertoothed cats appear.

PLEISTOCENE EPOCH begins 1.8 million years ago and concludes with the end of the Ice Ages, about 10,000 years ago. In the early Pleistocene, Thylacosmilus -unable to compete with Smilodon - becomes extinct. By the late Pleistocene, the severe climate contributes to massive megafauna extinctions including the sabertoothed cats and thylacoleo.

HOLOCENE EPOCH - 10,000 years ago- modern times. The last sabertooth cats and cave lions became extinct near the beginning of this period. Most modern wild cats are dangerously close to extinction now.

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