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:
“That’s what the cat said to the canary when he swallowed him: “You’ll be all right.””
—Alvah Bessie, Ranald MacDougall, and Lester Cole. Raoul Walsh. Mr. Williams (Henry Hull)
“I peer eagerly into every gap in a fence of a zipper.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)