Research overview: stem felids Proailurus and Pseudaelurus

The deep origins of the cat family trace to small civet-like carnivores of the Oligocene and Miocene, notably Proailurus and the later Pseudaelurus, from which both the modern cats and the sabertooths descended. This overview surveys what the fossil record reveals about these stem felids, their dental and skeletal transition toward the hypercarnivorous cat body plan, and how they anchor the molecular timescale of felid evolution. It discusses why genetic data cannot reach these ancient forms directly and must rely on fossil calibrations, and how paleontology and molecular phylogenetics together reconstruct the long prelude to the recent radiation of living cats.