Cats and dogs spend the same penny

B

Bravowon

Registered Senior Member
Most cat owners have witnessed their animal digging a small hole in the garden, popping a coil and then covering it over with soil. This seems to be an instinctive need as I can't think of any owners who have demonstrated this behaviour to their cats (well maybe one).
A little less well know is a dog's need to do the same thing. Have you ever witnessed, after a dog has done its business, how it sometimes tries to cover up by kicking bits of dirty over. This really is a futile attempt and is nowhere near as refined as their feline cousins -as per usual.
Question is, do these behaviours have an evolutionary link that is perhaps dying out in the canine or is this a new behaviour in the domesticated breeds?
Also, what is the name of their common ancestor?
 
I think a cat does this to keep its environment clean. Whereas a dog is insuring it has a tasty snack for later :)
 
Also, what is the name of their common ancestor?
Click to expand...

Carnivorous mammals evolved from Miacids small pine marten-like insectivores that lived 60 million - 55 million years ago. The miacids split into two lines: Miacidae and Viverravidae. Miacidae gave rise to Arctoidea/Canoidea group (bears and dogs) while Viverravidae gave rise to Aeluroidea/Feloidea group (cats, hyenas, civets, mongooses) around 48 million years ago. The Viverravidae also gave rise to a group called Nimravidae. The Nimravids were cat-like creatures that evolved in parallel with true cats; they are not part of true cat lineage and have left no living descendents.

The first true cat to arise from Viverravidae was Proailurus (first cat") around 30 million years ago. The best-known species was P lemanensis, found in France.
Proailurus was a small weasel-like cat with relatively short legs and a long body. It had one more premolar on each side of its bottom jaw than do modern cats. About 20 million years ago, Proailurus gave rise to Pseudaelurus. Pseudaelurus were Miocene ancestors of cats. Pseudaelurus lorteti was about the size of a large lynx while P validus was the size of a large lynx or small puma. Three other species of early cat are described as Pratifelis, Vishnufelis and Sivaelurus (S chinjienis).Pseudaelurus went on to split into two major groups: the Machairodontinae (true sabre-tooths) and Schizailurus (the ancestor of the modern day Felidae group).

http://www.messybeast.com/cat-prehistory.htm
 
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