[3][4][5][6] The 41 extant Felidae species exhibit the greatest diversity in fur patterns of all terrestrial carnivores.

Some wild cat species are adapted to forest and savanna habitats, some to arid environments, and a few also to wetlands and mountainous terrain.

Their activity patterns range from nocturnal and crepuscular to diurnal, depending on their preferred prey species.

[8] Reginald Innes Pocock divided the extant Felidae into three subfamilies: the Pantherinae, the Felinae and the Acinonychinae, differing from each other by the ossification of the hyoid apparatus and by the cutaneous sheaths which protect their claws.

[11] All members of the cat family have the following characteristics in common: The colour, length and density of their fur are very diverse.

[7] Those living in cold environments have thick fur with long hair, like the snow leopard (Panthera uncia) and the Pallas's cat (Otocolobus manul).

Central and South American cats have a haploid number of 18, possibly due to the combination of two smaller chromosomes into a larger one.

Proailurus is the oldest known cat that occurred after the Eocene–Oligocene extinction event about 33.9 million years ago; fossil remains were excavated in France and Mongolia's Hsanda Gol Formation.

[37] Results of mitochondrial analysis indicate that the living Felidae species descended from a common ancestor, which originated in Asia in the Late Miocene epoch.

[40] Panthera blytheae is the oldest known pantherine cat dated to the late Messinian to early Zanclean ages about 5.95 to 4.1 million years ago.

[48] Traditionally, five subfamilies had been distinguished within the Felidae based on phenotypical features: the Pantherinae, the Felinae, the Acinonychinae,[9] and the extinct Machairodontinae and Proailurinae.

[10] The following cladogram based on Piras et al. (2013) depicts the phylogeny of basal living and extinct groups.