🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

The feline commitment to meat is an evolutionary story, and this overview reviews how hypercarnivory and its metabolic specialisations arose in the cat lineage. As cats specialised on vertebrate prey,…

Protrusible, sheathed claws are a hallmark of the cat family and a few relatives, and this overview reviews their evolutionary origin and significance. The mechanism likely co-evolved with the felid s…

Sabertoothed cats vanished in the late Pleistocene alongside much of the large-mammal fauna, and this overview reviews hypotheses for their extinction and its significance. Proposed drivers include th…

The colour of cat eyeshine varies, and this overview reviews how tapetal structure and composition produce different reflected hues across individuals and species. The layered, crystalline tapetum act…

Cats move through a sequence of gaits as speed rises, from a walk to a trot, then to bounding and galloping forms. This overview describes the footfall patterns, duty factors, and energetic and stabil…

Cats are not colour-blind, but they see colour differently from humans, and this overview reviews the evidence for feline dichromacy. With two main cone types, cats are thought to perceive a more limi…

Body temperature is actively defended around a set point, and this overview reviews how cats regulate temperature during illness and fever. When fighting infection, the body can raise its thermoregula…

Finite-element analysis models a skull as a mesh of elements and predicts how stresses distribute under loads, and this overview surveys its application to cat crania. By simulating canine bites, stru…

A cat keeps its coat functional through maintenance, and this overview reviews waterproofing and coat care. Sebaceous glands coat the hairs with oils that help repel water and keep the fur in conditio…

Sabertoothed cats needed extraordinary jaw gapes to bring their long canines to bear, and this overview reviews how their jaw mechanics achieved this. Estimates place maximum gape far beyond that of a…

Grooming serves a thermoregulatory function, and this overview reviews how spreading saliva helps cats shed heat. When warm, cats may groom more, depositing saliva on the fur that then evaporates and…

Even strict carnivores host gut microbes, and this overview reviews what is known about the feline gut microbiome and its role in a meat diet. The cat intestinal microbial community is adapted to a hi…

Cats need more dietary protein than many mammals, and this overview reviews the metabolic basis. Feline liver enzymes that break down amino acids for energy operate at a relatively high, less adjustab…

The power for a jump comes largely from the hindlimb extensors, and this overview reviews how their architecture supports explosive movement. Large muscles crossing the hip, knee, and ankle, with fibr…

Cats can cover impressive horizontal distances in a single bound, and this overview reviews the biomechanics of the broad jump. Achieving distance requires a takeoff that balances upward and forward v…

Purring is a distinctive feline vocalisation produced continuously through inhalation and exhalation, and this overview reviews how it is generated. The leading view holds that rapid, rhythmic contrac…

The force of a cat bite comes from its jaw-closing muscles, chiefly the temporalis and masseter, and this overview reviews their arrangement and relative emphasis. In cats the temporalis is strongly d…

A short, powerful jaw bites hard but opens less widely, and this overview reviews the gape-versus-force trade-off in cats and its consequences. Wide gape helps clear large canines and seize big prey,…

Kittens are not born able to leap accurately, and this overview reviews how jumping ability develops through growth and play. As kittens grow, their muscles strengthen, limb proportions change, and ne…

Coming down safely is as important as getting up, and this overview reviews how cats absorb the impact of landing. On touchdown the limbs flex to lengthen the deceleration and spread the force over ti…

Body size affects how easily an animal gains or loses heat, and this overview reviews its thermoregulatory consequences for big cats. Because surface area grows more slowly than volume with size, larg…

Beyond purrs and roars, cats produce a rich variety of calls, and this overview reviews the laryngeal anatomy and mechanics behind them. The larynx, with its vocal folds, muscles, and cartilages, shap…

Cats handle dietary carbohydrate differently from omnivores, and this overview reviews their specialised glucose metabolism. Adapted to a low-carbohydrate, meat-based diet, cats have reduced activity…

The prominent whiskers on a cat muzzle, the mystacial vibrissae, form a precise tactile array, and this overview reviews their structure and arrangement. Thicker and more deeply rooted than ordinary h…

Black, or melanistic, coats appear repeatedly in wild cats, and this overview reviews this phenomenon and its causes. Melanism, seen famously in black leopards and jaguars, results from genetic varian…

Animals generate water internally when they metabolise food, and this overview reviews the role of metabolic water for desert cats. Oxidising the fat and protein in prey yields water as a by-product,…

Bite-force figures for cats are often estimates rather than direct measurements, and this overview reviews how they are derived and where they can mislead. Researchers reconstruct muscle forces from a…

The cat middle ear transmits airborne sound to the fluid-filled inner ear, and this overview reviews how its three tiny ossicles accomplish this efficiently. The ossicular chain and the area differenc…

Cats are exquisitely sensitive to movement, and this overview reviews the visual mechanisms behind this and their predatory significance. The feline visual system emphasises detecting and tracking mot…

Newborn kittens cannot regulate their own temperature well, and this overview reviews how they stay warm. With limited ability to generate and conserve heat, neonatal kittens depend on the warmth of t…