Cats

The emergence of modern cats began about 25 million years ago during the Miocene epoch. Much more recently, the saber-toothed tiger (Smilodon fatalis) lived in Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America, and had extremely long, upper canine teeth for stabbing its prey. The remains of saber-toothed tigers have been found to be as recent as 13,000 years old.

Cats were probably first domesticated in ancient Egypt about 5,000 years ago. The Egyptians used cats to protect grain supplies from rodents. They also worshiped cats, and mummified large numbers of them and placed them in tombs so they could continue to serve their owners in their afterlife. Since that time, the domestic cat has been carried by people throughout most of the world. The breeding of cats into numerous specific pedigrees was particularly active beginning with the middle of the nineteenth century.