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Short-tailed felids; Why some felid species are short-tailed
Topic Started: Mar 8 2018, 08:51 AM (268 Views)
Claudiu Constantin Nicolaescu
Heterotrophic Organism
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I would like to know your opinion on this subject: why some living (genus Lynx, genus Caracal, genus Leptailurus) and extinct (genus Smilodon) felids are short-tailed?
Edited by Claudiu Constantin Nicolaescu, Mar 8 2018, 09:08 AM.
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K9 Bite
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Not sure but imo I see short tailed felids looking more robust...like they have a bear or tank like build though that's just my opinion, have no evidence to back it up.
Edited by K9 Bite, Mar 9 2018, 01:10 AM.
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Taipan
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For Smilodon spp. the thought was that the short tail evolved as they did not chase prey, but heavily reliant on ambush. (But I'm a bit unsure on that one)
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K9 Bite
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Don't most cats rely heavily on ambush? It's what they're basically built for. Exceptions are maybe lions and cheetahs but they don't excatly chase prey for a huge amount of time/distance like canids. A curious observation i made is today only small to medium cats have short tails while larger cats like pumas and upwards all have the typical cat shape, with a long tail.
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Claudiu Constantin Nicolaescu
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There are also domestic cat (Felis catus) breeds (Manx cat, Japanese bobtail), which are tailless.
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