Felidae is a family of mammals in the order Carnivora, colloquially referred to as cats, and constitutes a clade. A member of this family is also called a felid. The term "cat" refers both to felids in general and specifically to the domestic cat.
Proailurus is an extinct felid genus that lived in Europe and Asia approximately 25 million years ago in the Late Oligocene and Miocene. Fossils have been found in Mongolia, Germany, and Spain.
Pseudaelurus is a prehistoric cat that lived in Europe, Asia and North America in the Miocene between approximately twenty and eight million years ago. It is considered to be a paraphyletic grade ancestral to living felines and pantherines as well as the extinct machairodonts (saber-tooths), and is a successor to Proailurus. It originated from Eurasia and was the first cat to reach North America, when it entered the continent at about 18.5 Ma ending a 'cat-gap' of 7 million years. The slender proportions of the animal, together with its short, viverrid-like legs, suggest that it may have been an agile climber of trees.
Prionailurus is a genus of spotted, small wild cats native to Asia. Forests are their preferred habitat; they feed on small mammals, reptiles and birds, and occasionally aquatic wildlife.
Panthera atrox, better known as the American lion, also called the North American lion, or American cave lion, is an extinct pantherine cat that lived in North America during the Pleistocene epoch and the early Holocene epoch, about 340,000 to 11,000 years ago. Its fossils have been excavated from Alaska to Mexico. Genetic analysis has shown that the American lion and the Late Pleistocene Eurasian cave lion are sister lineages. It was about 25% larger than the modern lion, making it one of the largest known felids.
Ekorus ekakeran is a large, extinct mustelid mammal. Fossils, including largely complete skeletons, are known from the late Miocene of Kenya.
The Felinae are a subfamily of the family Felidae. This subfamily comprises the small cats having a bony hyoid, because of which they are able to purr but not roar.
Protictitherium is an extinct genus of hyaena that lived across Europe and Asia during the Middle and Late Miocene, it is often considered to be the first hyaena since it contains some of the oldest fossils of the family. They were especially prolific in Turkey, where every species has been registered.
Barbourofelidae is an extinct family of carnivorans of the suborder Feliformia, sometimes known as false saber-toothed cats, that lived in North America, Eurasia and Africa during the Miocene epoch and existed for about 7.9 million years.
Ambondro mahabo is a mammal from the Middle Jurassic (Bathonian) Isalo III Formation of Madagascar. The only described species of the genus Ambondro, it is known from a fragmentary lower jaw with three teeth, interpreted as the last premolar and the first two molars. The premolar consists of a central cusp with one or two smaller cusps and a cingulum (shelf) on the inner, or lingual, side of the tooth. The molars also have such a lingual cingulum. They consist of two groups of cusps: a trigonid of three cusps at the front and a talonid with a main cusp, a smaller cusp, and a crest at the back. Features of the talonid suggest that Ambondro had tribosphenic molars, the basic arrangement of molar features also present in marsupial and placental mammals. It is the oldest known mammal with putatively tribosphenic teeth; at the time of its discovery it antedated the second oldest example by about 25 million years.
Triaenops goodmani is an extinct bat from Madagascar in the genus Triaenops. It is known from three lower jaws collected in a cave at Anjohibe in 1996, and described as a new species in 2007. The material is at most 10,000 years old. A bat humerus from the same site could not be identified as either T. goodmani or the living T. menamena. T. goodmani is identifiable as a member of Triaenops or the related genus Paratriaenops by a number of features of the teeth, such as the single-cusped, canine-like fourth premolar and the presence of a gap between the entoconid and hypoconulid cusps on the first two molars. T. goodmani is larger than the living species of Triaenops and Paratriaenops on Madagascar, and on the first molar the protoconid cusp is only slightly higher than the hypoconid, not much higher as in the other species.
Afrasia djijidae is a fossil primate that lived in Myanmar approximately 37 million years ago, during the late middle Eocene. The only species in the genus Afrasia, it was a small primate, estimated to weigh around 100 grams (3.5 oz). Despite the significant geographic distance between them, Afrasia is thought to be closely related to Afrotarsius, an enigmatic fossil found in Libya and Egypt that dates to 38–39 million years ago. If this relationship is correct, it suggests that early simians dispersed from Asia to Africa during the middle Eocene and would add further support to the hypothesis that the first simians evolved in Asia, not Africa. Neither Afrasia nor Afrotarsius, which together form the family Afrotarsiidae, is considered ancestral to living simians, but they are part of a side branch or stem group known as eosimiiforms. Because they did not give rise to the stem simians that are known from the same deposits in Africa, early Asian simians are thought to have dispersed from Asia to Africa more than once prior to the late middle Eocene. Such dispersals from Asia to Africa also were seen around the same time in other mammalian groups, including hystricognathous rodents and anthracotheres.
Indraloris is a fossil primate from the Miocene of India and Pakistan in the family Sivaladapidae. Two species are now recognized: I. himalayensis from Haritalyangar, India and I. kamlialensis from the Pothohar Plateau, Pakistan. Other material from the Potwar Plateau may represent an additional, unnamed species. Body mass estimates range from about 2 kg (4.4 lb) for the smaller I. kamlialensis to over 4 kg (8.8 lb) for the larger I. himalayensis.
Amphimachairodus is an extinct genus of large machairodonts. It is also a member of the tribe Homotherini within Machairodontinae and is most closely related to such species as Xenosmilus, Homotherium itself, and Nimravides. It inhabited Eurasia, Northern Africa and North America during the late Miocene epoch.
Sivaladapis is a genus of adapiform primate that lived in Asia during the middle Miocene.
Exiguodon is an extinct genus of hyainailourid hyaenodont mammal of the polyphyletic tribe Hyainailourini within paraphyletic subfamily Hyainailourinae. Remains are known from early Miocene deposits in Kenya and Uganda, in East Africa.
Sectisodon is an extinct genus of hyainailourid hyaenodont mammal of the polyphyletic tribe Hyainailourini within paraphyletic subfamily Hyainailourinae from early Oligocene to early Miocene deposits in Egypt and Uganda.
Miopanthera is an extinct genus of Pseudaelurus-grade felids.
The Hiwegi Formation is a geological formation on Rusinga Island in Kenya preserving fossils dating to the Early Miocene period. The Hiwegi Formation is known for the well preserved plant fossils it preserves, which indicate a tropical forest environment that underwent wet and dry periods. The middle members of the formation in particular indicate a brief period in which conditions were notably dryer with a more open environment compared to older and younger units. Some of the formation's fauna, such as an early ancestor of the modern aye-aye and a chameleon of the genus Calumma, link Miocene East Africa to modern day Madagascar.
Asilifelis is an extinct genus of small felid that lived in what is now Kenya during the Early Miocene. Despite its fragmentary remains, it is remarkable because of its small size and advanced dentition. It contains a single species, Asilifelis cotae.
