LogFAQs > #981348778

HairyQueen posted...

Cats descend from literal lions though so they can handle the heat.

Incorrect! Please don't talk nonsense about things you know nothing about. We have enough misinformation these days already.

Here's a quick lesson in taxonomy. Lions are known as Panthera leo while domesticated cats Felis catus. Both Panthera leo and Felis catus belong to felidae family like this:

This is lion:
Felidae [family] --> Pantherinae [subfamily] --> Panthera [genus] --> Panthera leo [species]

This is domesticated cat:
Felidae [family] --> Felinae [subfamily] --> Felis [genus] --> Felis catus [species]

To put it simply, both cats and lions share a common ancestor but cats do not descend from lions. See their subfamily.

Just for fun let's see dogs & wolves. Dogs are known as Canis lupus familiaris. It belongs to canidae family like this:

This is dog:
Canidae [family] --> Canis [genus] --> Canis lupus [species] --> Canis lupus familiaris [subspecies]

Do you see Canis lupus above? That's wolf or to be precise, gray wolf from Eurasia and North America. To put it simply, dogs do descend from (gray) wolves.