Felis

Taxonomy

Carl Linnaeus considered Felis to comprise all cat species known until 1758. Later taxonomists split the cat family into different genera. In 1917, the British zoologist Reginald Innes Pocock revised the genus Felis as comprising only the ones listed in the following table. Estimated genetic divergence times of the listed species are indicated in million years ago (Mya), based on analysis of autosomal, xDNA, yDNA and mtDNA gene segments.

Pocock accepted the Pallas's cat as the only member of the genus Otocolobus. Other scientists consider it also a Felis species.

Several scientists consider the Chinese mountain cat a subspecies of F. silvestris.

Phylogeny

The phylogenetic relationships of living Felis species are shown in the following cladogram:

Extinct Felis species

Extinct Felis species in the fossil record include:

• Felis lunensis (Martelli, 1906)
• Felis wenzensis (Stach, 1961)

Characteristics

Felis species have high and wide skulls, short jaws and narrow ears with short tufts, but without any white spots on the back of the ears. Their pupils contract to a vertical slit. A black cat from Transcaucasia described in 1904 as F. daemon by Satunin turned out to be a feral cat, probably a hybrid of wildcat and domestic cat. The Kellas cat is a hybrid between domestic cat and European wildcat occurring in Scotland.

The Corsican wildcat is considered to have been introduced to Corsica before the beginning of the 1st millennium. A genetic study of a dozen individuals showed that they are closely related to the African wildcat originating in the Middle East.