Talk:Cat

Improper Grammar?

This says "it leads to the extinction of bird, mammal, and reptile species". Shouldn't it be THE bird mammal and reptile species?

This term stands for several species of birds, reptiles and mammals. To use "the", one would need to clarify which bird, mammal and reptile species went extinct - obviously, it's not referring to all such species. beforeAdapter (talk · contribs) 2022-03-20T17:22Z

Evolution section fails to have the basic information

Somehow this section has become devoid of any taxonomic and evolutionary information, which is of course a disservice to our readers. Last I was reading up on this (several years ago) it was certain that domestic cats evolved from F. lybica, but that information (or even info on any renewed scientific dispute about the matter) is utterly missing. Over at Felinae is a "family tree" chart showing F. catus as a sister taxon of F. silvestris, and neither grouped with F. lybica nor shown as a descendant of either wild cat, and this appears to be a double error. If the literature has markedly changed in the last few years, then we need to cite it and write encyclopedic material that summarizes what it now says. If it hasn't changed and F. lybica is still the canonical ancestor, then we need to say that, in both articles.  — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼  21:26, 7 November 2023 (UTC)

We can add the cladogram shown at African wildcat#Phylogeny, of course with WP:PATT. I think I made this a couple of years ago, need to check. BhagyaMani (talk) 23:24, 7 November 2023 (UTC)

Sounds like a good idea. I wasn't aware of the nuclear–mitochondrial ancestry split on this; like I say, it's been several years since I read anything reliable on the matter. I just know our article shouldn't have zero information, and it looks like the Felinae article needs more complete information.  — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼  01:13, 8 November 2023 (UTC)

It may not be a real discordance. The nuclear data is based on a few specimens (Johnson et al, 2006; Li et al, 2017), while the mitochondrial data in Driscoll et al 2010 had hundreds of samples [Edit: they also had nuclear data (see below)]. The result is difficult to express in a simple phylogenetic tree as there need to be many lybica/domestic cat clades and they remain intermingled (unlike the clear split between dogs and wolves). Similar results with ancient DNA find the same pattern (Ottoni et al 2017; doi:10.1038/s41559-017-0139). —  Jts1882 | talk  17:56, 9 November 2023 (UTC)

Then what do you propose? Or feel free to change the cladogram as you deem appropriate. BhagyaMani (talk) 17:58, 9 November 2023 (UTC)

I'm still not sure what to do. The cladograms from African wildcat#Phylogeny are fine as they just illustrate the results, although perhaps the difference needs a comment.

However, I've wasn't remembering the Driscoll et al (2007) paper properly. They also had STR/microsatellite nuclear data, which shows six clades that correspond to the mitochondrial clades (I-VI: silvestris, cafra, ornata, lybica/catus, bieti, margarita) and showed the domestic cats embedded in lybica. The main differences from the mitochondria data are that bieti is embedded as sister to ornata (Fig 2C), rather than sister to the wildcat (F. silvestris sensu lato), and that the Near Eastern clade IV has internal divisions with European and Asiatic domestic cat clades which together are sister to a mixed lybica/domestic cat clade. If we are to compare nuclear and mitochondrial results perhaps we should use this focuses study with broad sampling rather than the Felidae studies with limited sampling within Felis (Johnson et al, 2006; Li et al, 2017). —  Jts1882 | talk  13:41, 10 November 2023 (UTC)

Speaking as a non-specialist, that seems reasonable to me. It would surely be better to present a complex picture that reflects the complete available research than to give an over-simplification.  — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼  17:28, 10 November 2023 (UTC)

Felis	Sand cat European wildcat African wildcat Southern African wildcat Domestic cat Near Eastern wildcat Asiatic wildcat Chinese mountain cat	Felis

Change the Name of the page to Domestic Cat

"Cat" may refer to any memeber of the feline family. If the page is changed to "Domestic Cat" then it would be easier to identify. 76.64.181.63 (talk) 05:06, 2 January 2024 (UTC)

 Not done: The hatnote at the top of the article takes care of that. - UtherSRG (talk) 12:01, 2 January 2024 (UTC)

See also:

• Talk:Cat/Archive 14#Big cats a thing of the past? (2020)
• Talk:Cat/Archive 13#Page move to Domestic cat ? (2019)
• Talk:Cat/Archive 13#Definition of "cat" downsized (2019)
• Talk:Cat/Archive 12#Requested_move (2012) - proposed by me before I "saw the light"
• Talk:Cat/Archive 10#Requested move (2008)

And there are probably others; I didn't look very exhaustively.  — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼  13:06, 5 January 2024 (UTC)

Jan 2024 Edit request to include pussy and Tom

Needs mention of the terms "pussy" and "tom" which are the correct terms of gender for the domestic cat according to most veterinary literature. 2600:8804:6F07:F300:C817:162A:D39F:6C14 (talk) 18:09, 28 January 2024 (UTC)

 Already done M.Bitton (talk) 19:48, 28 January 2024 (UTC)

Thanks. 38.43.20.62 (talk) 23:10, 11 February 2024 (UTC)