Phylogeny and speciation of felids: a combined morphological and molecular view

This analysis combined available morphological and molecular characters to estimate a phylogeny for the cat family and to discuss patterns of speciation. Conducted before the genomic era, it represents an attempt to integrate data classes at a time when molecular sampling was still sparse. The authors examined how cats diversified and which characters supported particular groupings, contributing to debates over genus boundaries and lineage composition. The study is historically important as one of the more comprehensive pre-2006 attempts to place all cat genera in a single framework, and its results were later tested by the multi-gene phylogeny that defined the eight lineages. It illustrates both the promise and the limits of total-evidence approaches when molecular coverage is incomplete.