Cat-alytic Converters
Turns out that cats do evolve rather quickly. It may not be the couple hundred of years I talked about earlier, but Discovery is saying that all known cat species evolved over just 11 million years, after originating in Asia. "A prime example is the ocelot. Before the Isthmus of Panama emerged, there were no cats or any other large predators in South America.
When ocelot cats finally got in about three million years ago, they rapidly evolved into seven new species -- the ocelot, margay, Andean mountain cat, Pampas cat, Geoffrey's cat, Kodkod and Tigrina -- and took over." - Discovery
Complicating the search for feline origins, are the cases where the cats came back. Some species doubled back after lengthy migrations, such as the Cheetah which returned from North America all the way to Africa via land bridges.
