Research overview: phylogeny and fossil evolution of the Felidae

This overview synthesizes the deep-time evolution of cats, from the Oligocene Proailurus and Miocene Pseudaelurus stem felids through the divergence of the conical-toothed Felinae and the sabertoothed Machairodontinae. It explains how the modern cat radiation is geologically recent, why the fossil record of cats is comparatively sparse because of their solitary forest habits, and how paleontological calibration points anchor molecular clocks. The survey connects morphological trends in hypercarnivory, body-size evolution, and locomotor specialization to the genetic phylogeny, clarifying why fossil and molecular datasets sometimes disagree on the timing and order of lineage splits. It further highlights how a sparse but informative fossil record, combined with molecular dating, frames the modern cats as a recent and explosively successful branch of an ancient carnivore lineage.