Immigrants are afraid of cold and heat.

400 million years ago, mammals thrived on the earth, and there was an animal called saber-toothed tiger. It can be said that it is the earliest ancestor of cats. It was extinct 20 thousand years ago. Now we can only see its fossils in biology and geological museum, and imagine its awesome appearance.

There is also a saying that the ancestors of cats and dogs are extinct animals-ancient cats and beasts, and the ancestors of many animals, such as bears, weasels, raccoons, foxes and coyotes, are probably also such animals. According to the results of archaeological discoveries and the analysis of paleontology, this animal lives in trees and looks like cats and dogs. Its body is bigger, its tail is longer, its legs are shorter, and it can stretch its claws freely like cats and dogs.

Cats, like other domesticated livestock, evolved from wild cats after long-term feeding and domestication by human beings. Surprisingly, the ancestors of wild cats, like the ancestors of dogs, are all extinct animals-Mises, a small animal living in trees. Ancient cats and wild animals lived 40-50 million years ago. According to archaeological findings and scientific speculation, this animal with a big body and a short tail is probably the same ancestor of the weasel fox and the American wolf.

Over time, about 65,438+0,000 years ago, an animal more similar to today's cats evolved from this ancient cat and beast. People call it a tooth-fearing cat. This animal is alert on the ground and in trees. This tooth-fearing cat may be a higher ancestor of wildcats.

As domestic animals, cats appear later than dogs. Dogs entered human life 20,000-50,000 years ago, while cats only entered human life about 5,000 years ago. At that time, there were domestic cats in ancient Egypt and ancient Asia. The "whereabouts" of domestic cats can be found in murals and manuscripts of ancient Egypt and the ruins of Thebes Temple.

The earliest cats were primitive cats that lived 55 million years ago. The ancestors of cats may be African wildcats, North African wildcats or European wildcats. Cats are advanced hunters among carnivores living on the mainland. These sophisticated killers who specialize in hunting herbivores all originated in the late Bayan era 65 million years ago. The ancestors of cats were the earliest carnivorous mammals, called ancient carnivorous teeth. The body is long and short, with claws on the feet and 44 powerful teeth on the upper and lower foreheads. Ancient carnivores evolved into more terrible carnivores, some as big as lions. It was not until the early Pliocene that the little ancient cat evolved into the most important animal. All modern terrestrial carnivores originated from little ancient cats. This animal is small, lives in the forest, has a more developed brain than ancient carnivores, and has a higher hunting efficiency.

Wolves can adapt to human life at first because their social behavior matches human beings in many ways. Cats are different from humans. They are solitary hunters with fixed territory, and most of them are active at night. However, it was their hunting behavior that first brought cats into contact with human environment, and their strong instinct to protect territory drove them to appear in the same place. The history of domesticating cats is much later than that of dogs. This period may not be earlier than 7000 BC, when the "crescent-shaped rice granary" was formed in the Middle East due to the prosperity of agriculture. The appearance of houses, barns and grain shops provides a new living environment for small mammals such as mice, which are just the ideal prey for small wild cats. From the beginning, people and cats have established a mutually beneficial relationship: cats get rich food sources, while humans get rid of annoying rodents. At first, the existence of these wild cats may be accepted or even encouraged by human beings, and some food will be thrown from time to time. Just like wolves, some tame wild cats were gradually absorbed into human society, resulting in the earliest semi-domesticated cats.

It is almost certain that domestic cats are descendants of all small wildcats in Europe, Africa and South Asia. In this vast area, according to the local environment and climate conditions, countless sub-populations of wild cats have evolved. Their appearances are different. European wildcats living in the north have strong bodies, short ears and thick fur. African wildcats are more slender, with long ears and long legs; Asian wildcats living in the south are small and spotted. The original ancestor of domestic cats is probably African wildcats, because African wildcats are only slightly bigger than domestic cats and have a gentler temperament than other wildcats. African wildcats often appear near human settlements, are easy to domesticate and are often kept as pets by local residents. After domestic cats are brought around the world, they may mate with local wild cats and become the ancestors of modern domestic cats in different regions. At present, the fur lines of European domestic cats with dark stripes have the characteristics of both European wild cats and African wild cats, while the spots on domestic cats living in India indicate that their ancestors are related to Asian wild cats. The hybridization between domestic cats and other wild cat breeds, such as jungle cats, is unlikely to have a significant impact on the mainstream breeds of domestic cats. After thousands of generations of reproduction, the physiological changes caused by domestication have also occurred in cats, similar to dogs. Including smaller body, shorter claws, smaller brain and cranial cavity, posture of stretching ears and tail, and color and texture of fur have also changed. But unlike dogs, cats maintain a great degree of independence in human society, so they rarely form certain behavioral characteristics that human beings need because of selective external pressure. Therefore, compared with their ancestors, domestic cats have little change in appearance, which is difficult to distinguish in early archaeological discoveries.

The remains of cats have been found near different prehistoric human sites, including the Neolithic site in Israel about 9000 years ago and the Indian Valley site in Pakistan about 4000 years ago. However, these wrecks are probably wild cats killed for fur or meat. Interestingly, the remains of cats and mice 8,000 years ago were found on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, which can only be brought to the island by human immigrants. Although these cats may not have been fully domesticated, they were deliberately brought to the island to deal with rodents.