Research overview: the Asian origin and global spread of cats

This overview surveys evidence that the family Felidae originated in Eurasia, likely in Asia, before dispersing repeatedly across the world. Combining the fossil record of early cats such as Proailurus and Pseudaelurus-grade forms with molecular phylogenies of living species, researchers reconstruct a history in which cats arose in the Old World and then colonized other continents in successive waves tied to changing climates and land connections. The survey reviews how the deep nodes of the cat family tree are anchored to Eurasian fossils, how subsequent dispersals seeded the radiations of New World and African cats, and why an Asian centre of origin best fits the combined evidence. It frames felid biogeography as a story of recurrent intercontinental migration from an Old World cradle.