Scientists classify living organisms into different kingdoms, families, and orders to study more about them. Although, most people do not go into such details, but certain people who love cats will definitely want to know the scientific classification of cats.

However, before that there is little history here about the rankings. In the 19th century, there was a great craze to scientifically classify organisms. During that era, researchers identified numerous species and subspecies. They named the organisms by their own name or by the name of the traveler, who bought them in different regions. Consequently, cats were no exception, and the researchers also classified them.

Below is a detailed description of the scientific classification of cats. To begin with, the domestic cat in the home is commonly known as Felis Catus.

How the researchers classified the cats:

Life science expert Carouse Linnaes gave the name Felis Catus to the domestic cat in the year 1758. Domestic cats are, in fact, distant relatives of wild cats. Therefore, domestic cats are the subspecies of wild cats. Thus, according to the guidelines of the ICZN (International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature), wild cats are called F silvestris and F silvestris catus for domestic species.

Cats are mammals and represent the groups of vertebrates. Also, since cats are carnivores, they are placed under the order Carnivores. The easy and scientific tabulation of cat classification is as follows:

Common name: cat, feline, kitten, domestic cat and pussycat

Animal Kingdom

Edge: Chordata

Class: Mammals

Order: Carnivora

Subordinate: Feliformia

Family: Felidae

Subfamily: Felinate/Pantherinae

Species: Felis catus

Cats like domestic cats, cougars, cheetahs, lynxes, ocelots, and others belong to the Felinae subfamily, while big cats like leopards, jaguars, lions, and tigers belong to the Pantherinae subfamily.

Long before scientists assigned a scientific classification to cats, ancient travelers and cat lovers had already classified them into subspecies. It usually relied on the notion that the particular cat type was representative of the main cat phenotype in the area.

This method was the same as the Victorian love of gathering and classifying organisms and then claiming them in a certain order. For example, the extant Felis Catus anura is known as the Manx, catus Siamensis as the Siamese, F catus cartusenesis as the Chartreux, and F catus angorensis as the Turkish Angora.

About Species:

Species are nothing more than taxonomic groups of animals, which are similar but easily distinguishable from each other. Although they appear similar, they never interbreed naturally.

For example, tigers and cats are the same species but they are very different in terms of behavior and type, so they need to be further classified into subspecies or breeds. Mammals of a particular subspecies vary morphologically from the distinctive mammals.

The domestic cat is actually a descendant of the original African wildcat. The subspecies of an African wildcat is Fs lybica. Domestic cats take the place under Fs lybica and become felis catus. All breeds of felis catus interbreed naturally.