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Evolutionarily, this makes sense. All felids are obligate carnivores that rely on meat for nutrients—for example, they need taurine for vision, which they can't
by pcwalton 7y ago
Evolutionarily, this makes sense. All felids are obligate carnivores that rely on meat for nutrients—for example, they need taurine for vision, which they can't synthesize and is only found in meat. So there's an evolutionary advantage for cats to not want to eat anything else.
- lisper 7y ago> All felids are obligate carnivores I think you meant "felines". [UPDATE] Nope, the OP meant felids (though my old eyes parsed it as "fields" (never heard of a "felid" before) which is why I thought it was spell checking or voice recognition gone wrong).
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- powersurge360 7y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felidae https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felidae
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- journalctl 7y ago“felid” comes from “Felidae”, the family for cats. It’s synonymous, but a bit more formal.
- SEJeff 7y agoLike a tuxedo tshirt. It says I'm serious but like to party.
- thaumasiotes 7y agoEtymologically, "felids" are "things descended from cats", while "felines" are "things that are like cats".
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- WillDaSilva 7y agoNo, felid refers to a member of the felidae family.
- draw_down 7y agoCome on
- JumpCrisscross 7y ago> there's an evolutionary advantage for cats to not want to eat anything else Do we have evidence cats’ ancestors had such a receptor? If not, it might be simpler to assume there wasn’t evolutionary pressure to not taste sweetness as much as there was a lack of any pressure to taste it.
- pcwalton 7y agoHyenas and mongooses are feliforms and can taste sweetness, as can all caniforms (I think). Presumably that means that the carnivoran ancestor could as well. I'm not a biologist, but the lack of that gene is very conserved across all Felidae, I think (i.e. there isn't a single felid that can taste sweetness) which usually indicates that there's some evolutionary pressure.
- whatshisface 7y agoThe lack of genes for language, flight and laser eyes are also conserved across all cats, but I'm sure that those would be advantageous.
- bitwize 7y agoWhile I would love to meet a talking flying laser cat, all creatures have a fixed energy budget, and implementing any "feature" has an energy cost. So it could well be advantageous for creatures to not have a feature if they don't need it to survive in their EEA. Evolutionary pressure can make a feature go away or become vestigial if the energy requirement to support it is too great. This is how we get blind lizards in dark caves, for example. Or tailless humans (and other great apes).
- close04 7y agoI'm torn between upvote for funny and downvote for (probably) wrong. :) The gene is present in all (most?) other mammals except cats. One can reasonably assume that there was some evolutionary pressure to it. A whole family/species most likely does not lose a gene without some major outside pressure. Either the population shrinks suddenly and is recovered from individuals missing the gene, or that gene is eliminated presumably for good reason. This is not evidence but it's the more likely explanation. Of course laser eyes are great only for the first individual that evolves them. Then basically every other population tends to start dying off because you can't just not use them.
- starpilot 7y agoDoesn't stop my cat from eating my plants.
- stevewodil 7y agoAnd then puking them up!
- petecox 7y agoEating plants and subsequent regurgitation is said to aid digestion "much as humans pop an antacid tablet". https://www.hillspet.com.au/cat-care/behavior-appearance/why-do-cats-eat-grass https://www.hillspet.com.au/cat-care/behavior-appearance/why...
- minikites 7y agoSo then why doesn't this appear in any other mammal obligate carnivores?
- kjs3 7y agoSpoken like someone who has never had a cat. Cat's do not only eat meat, anyone who's had one knows this, and it's apparently important for their health (see https://www.petmd.com/cat/wellness/evr_ct_eating_grass https://www.petmd.com/cat/wellness/evr_ct_eating_grass for example). Evolution is slightly more complicated than you understand.
- pcwalton 7y agoI've been a cat dad for over a decade. Mine loves to chew on plastic, in particular :)
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]