#feliform

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Binturong

i’m coming up on a year of hosting a creature sticker club and i’ve drawn over 200 animals so far!

here are some of the felids i’ve drawn this year. big cats (pantherinae) are distinct from small cats (felinae) in that big cats car roar! except for the snow leopard. taxonomy is a weird science.

This image is from the Wikipedia article on the order “Carnivora”. This order is divided into two suborders: Feliformia (cat-like) and Caniformia (dog-like).

The image puts side to side similar species of each suborder. The animals on each column are genetically more related to the other animals in their respective column, yet they look much more alike (to a certain extent) to the animal to their right (or left). In a way, each row presents the feliform and the caniform version of the same “design”. This is one of the aspects of evolution that amazes me the most. Although the process that generates mutations within species is quite random, the process that favors certain mutations over others (natural selection) isn’t as random. As such, certain organism “designs” ended up repeated in nature because they were favored by the same evolutionary pressures.

First row: A Cheetah and a Brown bear. They are both apex predators that hunt alone (or small groups for Cheetah) and rely on strength and speed.

Second row: A Hyena and a Wolf. They are both group hunting animals of relatively similar size and shape.

Third row: A Bearcat and a Raccoon. They are both small, nocturnal, omnivorous and arboreal predators, although they may opt for food that they do not need to hunt. (I had no idea bearcats were a thing until a few months ago)

Fourth row: A Mongoose and a Mink. They are both small and fusiform, which allows them to get through narrow gaps for shelter or hunting.

Fifth row: A Fossa and a Walrus. Okay, these two aren’t similar in any way, except maybe for the fact that they both live on islands. The very short hair on the fossa may actually help it swim, but they aren’t known to be swimmers.