http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/07/120711141010.htm
In this article scientists hypothesize the evolution of modern domestic cats and modern big cats like lions, tigers, and lynxes from prehistoric saber-toothed cats. They found that modern ccats diverged from sabre toothed cats early on and then split again into modern domestic cats and big cats. To back up their claims they studied the skulls of modern cats and preserved fossils of sabre toothed cats. They took measurements of the teeth and skull parts and compared the specimens to each other.
NOS Themes:
*Science is collaborative. The scientists in this article were building on different theories of feline evolution from before and hoping to gather evidence for it with a new approach.
*Role of chance. The scientists were surprised at how much data they were able to collect and interpret just by simple measurements.
*Role of motivation and curiosity. The scientists in this study were interested in feline evolution and thus motivated to study the three types of cats.
That's really interesting. In the article linked below I read also read a lot of interesting stuff about modern cats. It says that cats are estimated to have been domesticated around 12,000 years ago and all descended from a Middle Eastern wildcat, Felis sylvestris. It also says that cats were domesticated for pest control. Isn't that interesting?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/brief_cats.html