Around 12 million years ago, the genus Felis appeared and eventually gave rise to many of the modern small cats.

[1] Fossil evidence suggests the modern European wildcat Felis silvestris may have evolved from F. lunensis during the Middle Pleistocene.

[2] This has resulted in F. lunensis occasionally being considered a subspecies of Felis silvestris.

Felis lunensis first described by Alessandro Martelli in 1906 was a mandible excavated in Pliocene deposits near Olivola in Tuscany.

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