The cat gap is a period in the fossil record of approximately 25 to 18.5 million years ago in which there are few fossils of cats or cat-like species found in North America. The cause of the "cat gap" is disputed, but may have been caused by changes in the climate (global cooling), changes in the habitat and environmental ecosystem, the increasingly hypercarnivorous trend of the cats (especially the nimravids), volcanic activity, evolutionary changes in dental morphology of the Canidae species present in North America, or possibly even attributed to patterns of periodicity of extinctions (climatic/floral cycles called "van der Hammen cycles")
Read more about Cat Gap: Cat Evolution, Hypercarnivorous Tendency As A Probable Cause of The Cat Gap, Changes in Climate and Habitat, Other Possible Causes of The Cat Gap, Evolution of Caniforms During The Cat Gap
Famous quotes containing the words cat and/or gap:
“For I will consider my Cat Jeoffry.
For he is the servant of the Living God, duly and daily serving him.
For at the first glance of the glory of God in the East he worships
in his way.
For is this done by wreathing his body seven times round with
elegant quickness.”
—Christopher Smart (1722–1771)
“She isn’t harassed. She’s busy, and it’s glamorous to be busy. Indeed, the image of the on- the-go working mother is very like the glamorous image of the busy top executive. The scarcity of the working mother’s time seems like the scarcity of the top executive’s time.... The analogy between the busy working mother and the busy top executive obscures the wage gap between them at work, and their different amounts of backstage support at home.”
—Arlie Hochschild (20th century)