All The Cats, Explained

Res ipsa loquitur.

Wrote Kottke:

From MinuteEarth, a quick tour of all the different kinds of cats in the world — extinct, wild, and domesticated — and how they are related to each other. Some interesting facts I learned:

• The saber-toothed tiger was the largest cat to ever live and researchers now believe it had a short tail rather than a long one.

• There was an American cheetah. It was bigger than the cheetah we know today and “almost as fast”. It went extinct around the time humans showed up in North America.

• Leopards and snow leopards aren't actually that closely related.

• Domestic cats are mostly descended from wildcats (not to be confused with cats who are wild — wildcat refers to two specific species, the European wildcat (Felis silvestris) and the African wildcat (Felis lybica).

Wait a sec — what's that song I'm hearing?