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Ocelot II

(120,591 posts)
Wed Oct 4, 2023, 10:25 PM Oct 2023

Cats are perfect, per Scientific American.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/cats-are-perfect-an-evolutionary-biologist-explains-why/

But we knew that.

They have different coat colors, sure. But they all have the same baby heads. They’re round, and they don’t elongate as the animal matures, which is the standard developmental pattern for mammals. Dogs have short, round faces as puppies but long, snouty faces as adults. An adult cat looks pretty much like a baby cat but bigger. With dogs, breeders play off of that developmental variation to create breeds with different face shapes. But because cats don’t have that developmental variation, there isn’t much to play around with other than coat color.

This all goes back to the fact that cats are extremely specialized. Every member of the order of mammals known as the carnivorans, including cats and dogs, has an upper fourth premolar and a lower first molar that form what we call the slicing pair, which slices meat. A lot of carnivorans retain molars behind the slicing pair that can grind up stuff such as vegetation. But cats have lost pretty much everything behind their slicing teeth. They might have a little nub, a peg tooth, but it can’t process stuff. This is why foxes are perfectly happy going through garbage, whereas leopards will kill livestock instead.

...

Cats have nailed this one thing so well that they all do it and just come up with slightly different sizes. That’s why they’re perfect, evolutionarily. They don’t need variation. They might get bigger or smaller, but they don’t change anything else because they’re doing it just right otherwise. They’re not jacks-of-all-trades; they’re masters of one.

...

There are lots of things that have tried to be cats—other groups of mammals that have evolutionarily converged on cats. Marsupials have tried to be cats. An extinct group of carnivorans called creodonts have tried to be cats. Weasels have tried to be cats. There’s all kinds of stuff that has tried to be a bit catlike in different ways—mongooses, things like that. But they kind of dip in and dip out of being cats, and they can’t really outcompete cats in their space. They haven’t lasted. All of those things that have tried to be cats, they do other things, too, and those things are fine. But there aren’t a lot of things that are around today that do a very good job of being a cat.... You can’t just casually try to be a cat. You have to commit. Cats have committed to being cats. Everything else is just sort of dabbling, and it doesn’t work.




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Cats are perfect, per Scientific American. (Original Post) Ocelot II Oct 2023 OP
Everybody wants to be a cat... regnaD kciN Oct 2023 #1
I always wanted to be re-incarnated as my father's cat..... lastlib Oct 2023 #2
Of course, cats are perfect! lastlib Oct 2023 #3
Yes. Think. Again. Oct 2023 #4
I prefer the company of my cats... Jack-o-Lantern Oct 2023 #5
Science! Beartracks Oct 2023 #6
Wel,duhhh. niyad Oct 2023 #7
Yes, cats are perfect per PSPS too. Plus my cat can read my mind. PSPS Oct 2023 #8
Which raises the question.. Permanut Oct 2023 #9
Let's just hope we never run into their big brothers, the Kzin. LudwigPastorius Oct 2023 #10
And a cat is a cat is a cat Warpy Oct 2023 #11
I recall a picture of a leopard sitting in a box 📦 Unwind Your Mind Oct 2023 #13
My cats are perfect Randomthought Oct 2023 #12
Never met one that wasn't! calimary Oct 2023 #14
so true about the kitten head thing FirstLight Oct 2023 #15
C'mon, sing it! Starseer Oct 2023 #16
Specialized teeth -- aka carnassials eppur_se_muova Oct 2023 #17

lastlib

(24,842 posts)
2. I always wanted to be re-incarnated as my father's cat.....
Wed Oct 4, 2023, 10:40 PM
Oct 2023

I would have it MADE in the SHADE! - - - Food, ear scritches, belly rubs warm chair by the fire, boxes galore--everything I could possibly want--except my, um, well, youknow.....down there..........

Meee-OWWW!

lastlib

(24,842 posts)
3. Of course, cats are perfect!
Wed Oct 4, 2023, 10:41 PM
Oct 2023

If you don't believe it, just ask one!

They are well-aware that they were once worshipped as gods, and they understand why, and they haven't forgotten the fact.

Permanut

(6,615 posts)
9. Which raises the question..
Wed Oct 4, 2023, 11:09 PM
Oct 2023

Where did they really come from?

So far, my cat Tiger hasn't given the slightest hint

Warpy

(113,130 posts)
11. And a cat is a cat is a cat
Wed Oct 4, 2023, 11:48 PM
Oct 2023

I had an old newspaper clipping of a lion on his back, his keeper scratching just the right place on his neck. The position of the paws told me he was paddling the air exactly the way my house cats did when they were flat on their backs and I found just the right spot.

I don't know everything about how cats work, but I did spot that.

Randomthought

(890 posts)
12. My cats are perfect
Wed Oct 4, 2023, 11:57 PM
Oct 2023

I have lived with cats for71 years (family pictures of me hugging a cat as a two year old) and they are not only evolutionary perfect but they are incredible problem solvers.
They are very intelligent an8mals.

FirstLight

(14,009 posts)
15. so true about the kitten head thing
Thu Oct 5, 2023, 01:37 AM
Oct 2023

my current "old man" kitty, Oscar, is 11 but still a full on baby kitten when sleeping and cuddling. It's why he's my Baaaabbbby and gets all the foods and loves...lol

He's also a total hunter and murderer of small creatures in the yard and will ignore me when he's outside...

like, "mommmm.... I'm TRYING to be a jungle cat, PLEEEAZE stop talking to me how cute I am!"

we just recently added a little black demon kitty 'purrrsephone, princess of purrrrgatory'
she's a whole ass crazy bitch bt we love her
she's a year old now and finally settling down into her kittenness, and showing Oscar who's in charge...lol


Cats rule...

Starseer

(76 posts)
16. C'mon, sing it!
Thu Oct 5, 2023, 05:40 AM
Oct 2023

"Ev'rybody, ev'rybody,
ev'rybody wants to be a cat!"

"Ev'rybody, ev'rybody,
ev'rybody wants to be a cat!"

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