The cat skull, a wonder of evolutionary design

cat skull

The cat skull

The cat skull is a rather interesting anatomical part of the cat. We will dedicate this section to mention a bit about it and explore the evolutionary changes that took place.


Description of the cat skull

Let us begin with the eye sockets. These have the correct size, necessary to accommodate the cat’s large eyes. Just like the skull of all carnivores, the cat skull has teeth adapted to seizing and biting prey’s flesh. The canines are long and sharp, like weapons.

The upper and lower premolars work together like scissors to cut through flesh. There are 30 teeth in total in a cat.

The cat skull through the age of the animal

A study has revealed that the basic structure and metrics of a cat´s skull varies depending on the age of the animal. In this way, the age of cat has been divided into juvenile, subadult, and adult.

It was found that age variations signified important variations on the base and top of the skull.

Evolution of the cat skull

The cat family is divided into two subgroups, which are the feline cats, that include all modern cats and the saber-toothed, which are all extinct. The skulls of these two are very similar but change in some traits that suggest the separation that had to occur in order to adapt to their environment.

Cat´s skull seemed to have adapted to a basic need of cats. These needed to have a stunning ability to catch and move swiftly. A very strong bite is indispensable. The skull was adapted then to the need of preying.

The evolutionary process of enabling cats to better hunt responds to an ingrown necessity to effectively pin down prey and eat it.

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