STL Science Center

STL Science Center

10 April 2018

Papers That Are Fond of Cats

Pseudaelurus is important in all lineages of felidae because it is the last common ancestor of many different types of cats, but it is also important to people that know, love, and study cats because of this as well. Additionally, Pseudaelurus is the genus of cat that bridged the so-called "cat-gap" in North American fossil history. Tom Rothwell is a paleontologist that knows a lot about Pseudaelurus and the cat-gap. Rothwell has written papers on the phylogeny of Pseudaelurus cats in North America and he has described new species within the genus as well. There are other paleontologists writing papers about Pseudaelurus of course. Papers on Pseudaelurus can be found from as far back as at least 1954 and at least one article on dentition and the skull was written in the 1930s. However, new remains of Pseudaelurus species are described on a somewhat regular basis; clearly this was a genus that was very successful and must have been quite varied to have so many different species identified.

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