The ancestors of all modern members of the order Carnivora, which includes a variety of mammalian species, such as cats, bears, wolves and even seals, looked like the modern mongoose.
The ancestors of our furry cats and dogs once looked similar to today's modern mongoose, a mammal with a long body and small, round ears. In fact, all members of the order Carnivora, which includes a variety of mammalian species, such as bears, wolves and even seals, evolved from these 'mongoose-like' creatures.
How did such a variety of body shapes emerge from one body type? New research led by the University of Washington suggests that two different climate transitions millions of years ago fueled this change.
The team, led by Chris Law, a UW principal research scientist in biology, studied the skeletal shapes of more than 850 carnivoran specimens held at 17 different natural history museums. The specimens include almost 200 different species of carnivorans: 118 that currently exist and 81 that are extinct.
The researchers found that the Eocene-Oligocene Transition, which took place around 34 million years ago, led to changes in body shape between different carnivoran families—such as between cats and dogs.
Then the Mid-Miocene Climate Transition, which took place around 15 to 13 million years ago, led to changes within families—such as changes between canid species...
