Can A Dog Mate With A Cat – New research shows that humans have been identified as cat and dog lovers since the Stone Age, but our pets are actually more related than you might think.

Are you a dog or cat person? The question is often considered dichotomous: if you appreciate the determination of a stable dog owner, you cannot enjoy the flirtatious company of a kitten. Recent studies suggest that humanity may have been divided by pet preferences since the Stone Age. From an evolutionary point of view, however, the question is far from black and white. Cats and dogs belong together, they are related through a common ancestor. They share these ancestors with a whole range of other animals, large and small. You might also wonder: are you a badger or a hyena? Do you prefer meerkats or weasels?

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Our beloved pets belong to the Carnivora family. This group includes bears, hyenas, mongooses, civets, skunks, badgers and others, as well as members of the marine environment, seals, walruses and sea lions. The group’s name is somewhat misleading: not all carnivorous mammals are part of the beast, and not all members of the beast enjoy meat.

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Carnivores (animals belonging to the order Carnivora) have several characteristics, but the key is in their teeth. They all have blade-like carnassial teeth – their upper fourth premolar and lower first molar – that bite together to tear through food. This design is especially good for destroying meat, and many carnivores lead a predatory lifestyle. Others are more omnivorous, such as bears, which eat a lot of food, as well as bintourongs and red pandas, which mainly thrive on a plant-based diet. The so-called “giant panda”* has hit the nail on the head: it has become a full-fledged vegetarian, specializing in bamboo (although it has been known to occasionally eat fish, eggs or insects).

So what ancestral family photo do all these seemingly disparate animals have hanging on the wall at home? The ancestors of the Carnivores came from a group of animals called myacids, which were once found in Eurasia and North America. They were small, long built, a bit like a pine marten and at home in trees. The exact relationships between these myacids remain unclear, but we do know that they appeared just a few million years after the extinction of the dinosaurs and existed for more than 25 million years. From their slender ranks emerged the earliest identified carnivores.

Pine martens (Martes martes) in Scotland. The first ancestors of all carnivores, such as cats and dogs, may have looked similar. Photo: Alamy

Carnivores aren’t always top dogs when it comes to killing. In those heady days of mammal divergence, after an asteroid wiped out Earth’s largest reptiles, two more dominant groups of mammals emerged with specialized teeth that tear to feed on animals.

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The Creodonts included the largest land mammal predators of all time. Their carnassial teeth consisted only of molars (no premolars and molars, as in carnivores). This suggests that they came together to specialize in hunting and meat eating, separate from Carnivora, and they did so in Eurasia, Africa and North America. The last known creodontan,

, extinct just 8 million years ago, carnivores dominated the predatory world at that time.

Two paleontologists handle the skull of the creodont Megistotheria, which lived 24 million years ago and is one of the largest carnivorous land mammals to ever exist. Photo: Stephen Shepherd/holder Stephen Shepherd

Creodontans were not the only ones to move in the Paleogene. An even more special group of carnivores from Asia spread into the Northern Hemisphere: the mesonychids. They had no carnassial teeth at all, but had their own unique shears and crushing chairs for processing meat. While the earliest species walked on flat feet, some of the later species walked on their toes, much like cats and dogs, except they had hooves on each toe. Scientists share many dental and skull features with whales and dolphins, and theorized that mesonychids could be the ancestors of these marine mammals. More recent analysis suggests that they are sister groups sharing a common ancestor with hippos.

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Mesonychids and creodontans were top predators in their time, but both were replaced by carnivores, one of the most successful animal groups on Earth. It’s not clear exactly why carnivores fared so well at the expense of their cousins, but it is suggested that a range of unique adaptations – including larger brains, more efficient locomotion and more versatile teeth – gave them an ecological advantage. they can replace their competitors.

There is some truth in the cat vs. dog question. Although they share a common ancestor, carnivores are divided into two fairly well-defined groups: the largely dog-like Caniformia and the largely cat-like Feliformia. This division has deep roots, about 43 million years ago.

Fossa (Cryptoprocta ferox) from Madagascar is one of the many felines you may not have heard of. Photo: Sergei Savostyanov/TASS

Felines are generally more specialized carnivores, with shorter faces and retractable claws. Many of them are ambushed by predators rather than runners (cheetahs are a notable exception). These include Madagascar’s carnivores – such as fossa – meerkats, mongooses, civets and genets (although some research suggests these diverged from other carnivores before the main feliformia/caniformia emerged), as well as larger true cats and hyenas. Even a non-specialist can identify most of these animals as animals with a kitten-like demeanor. Now you know, it goes beyond the superficial.

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As you might expect, Caniformia includes dogs, wolves and jackals, all of which differ from their canine relatives. The rest of the caniformia has a strikingly diverse profile: it contains bears, another early separation from the rest of the group. Marine carnivores really sought out physical specialization, with their short fins and blubber rolls. But the old slang name for seals, “seals,” suggests that even before anatomy confirmed it, humanity could see the family resemblance. Perhaps less obvious: skunks, weasels, badgers, otters, raccoons and weasels are also part of this dog-tastic branch of the Carnivora.

Nasal or Coatimundi (Nasua narica) belongs to the dog branch of carnivores. Photo: Alamy Stock Photo

So what about a loyal dog and a modest cat? Recent research has explored the origins of our domesticated friends from their wild ancestors. Dogs receive a lot of attention and trace their origins to ancestors shared with modern gray wolves. The first domestication (or domestication, perhaps it happened twice) of wolves took place somewhere in Eurasia – perhaps even Europe – although there is still some dispute about it. It happened perhaps by human intent or perhaps by accident. The timing has also proven controversial, with a recent study in Nature Communications suggesting this happened as early as 41,000 years ago.

Another newspaper even reported this month that the first domesticated wolves suffered from the canine version of the developmental disorder William syndrome. This is caused by variations in the chromosome that lead to extremely friendly, trusting traits in humans (hypersociability) and what is described as pixie-like facial features. The theory is that wolves with this condition can easily communicate with humans due to their natural tendency to be man’s best friend. More research is needed to explore this possibility, but one thing is certain: we have been breeding dogs for friendliness ever since.

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The gray wolf (Canis lupus) is your pet’s closest living wild relative. Photo: Fred van Wijk/Alamy

Kittens have not been studied as intensively, but it has long been clear that their domestication occurred later and was less intensive. Recently, an international team led by researchers from the University of KU-Leuven in Belgium analyzed the DNA of cats from across Europe, Asia and Africa, including samples from modern cats and ancient DNA from archaeological samples. Their evidence suggests that crazy cat ladies have been around since Neolithic times, with waves of appreciation for cats starting in the Middle East and spreading across the ancient world via trade routes during the Egyptian dynasties. It wasn’t until the Middle Ages that we began breeding for more frivolous traits such as coat color, but we have long appreciated the usefulness of the dedicated mouser.

So will we all be dog carnivores versus cats? Maybe you prefer puppies and their cousins, and are naturally more attracted to skunks than mongooses? I leave it up to you to think about your loyalties and determine your own

But if you’re an animal lover and witch sitter like me, you know there’s a lot to appreciate in both branches of Carnivora. The sheer variety of cat and dog relatives is a testament to the successful evolutionary “design” shared by these two most popular pets.

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* So named because the giant panda and the red panda are not directly related. They belong to different branches of the Carnivora; The giant panda is actually a bear (Ursidae), while the red panda is the only member of its own special branch called the Ailuridae. The red panda was first discovered in the west