Felinae

The Felinae or small cats are a subfamily of the Felidae distinguished by a bony hyoid, because of which they can purr but not roar.
Other authors have proposed an alternative definition for this subfamily, as comprising only the living conical-toothed cat genera, with two tribes, the Felini and Pantherini, and excluding the extinct sabre-toothed Machairodontinae.

Characteristics

The members of the Felinae have retractile claws that are protected by at least one cutaneous lobe. Their larynx is kept close to the base of the skull by an ossified hyoid.
They can purr owing to the vocal folds being shorter than.
The cheetah Acinonyx does not have cutaneous sheaths for guarding claws.

Taxonomy

The term 'Felini' was first used in 1817 by Gotthelf Fischer von Waldheim, at the time for all the cat species that had been proposed as belonging to the genus Felis.
In 1917, Reginald Innes Pocock also subordinated the following genera to the Felinae that had been proposed in the course of the 19th century: Lynx, Puma, Leptailurus, Prionailurus, Pardofelis, Leopardus, Herpailurus, Neofelis and four more.
The Felinae and Pantherinae probably diverged about 11.5 million years ago. The genera within the Felinae diverged between 10.67 and 4.23 million years ago.
Today, the following living genera and species are recognised as belonging to the Felinae:

Genus	Species	Image of type species	Range
Acinonyx Brookes, 1828	Cheetah Schreber, 1777		Africa and Southwestern Asia
Caracal Gray, 1843	Caracal African golden cat		Africa and Southwestern Asia
Catopuma Severtzov, 1858	Asian golden cat Bay cat		Southeastern Asia
Felis Linnaeus, 1758	Domestic cat Linnaeus, 1758 European wildcat Schreber, 1777 Jungle cat Schreber, 1777 African wildcat Forster, 1780 Black-footed cat Burchell, 1824 Sand cat Loche, 1858 Chinese mountain cat Milne-Edwards, 1892		Afro-Eurasia Worldwide
Herpailurus Severtzov, 1858	Jaguarundi		Central and Southern America
Leopardus Gray, 1842	Ocelot Oncilla Pampas cat Kodkod Margay Geoffroy's cat Andean mountain cat Southern tiger cat		Central and Southern America
Leptailurus Severtzov, 1858	Serval		Africa
Lynx Kerr, 1792	Eurasian lynx Bobcat Canada lynx Kerr, 1792 Iberian lynx		Northern Hemisphere
Otocolobus Brandt, 1842	Pallas's cat		Central Asia
Pardofelis Severtzov, 1858	Marbled cat		Southeastern Asia
Prionailurus Severtzov, 1858	Leopard cat Sunda leopard cat Flat-headed cat Fishing cat Rusty-spotted cat		Southeastern and Eastern Asia
Puma Jardine 1834	Cougar Linnaeus, 1771		Americas

Extinct taxa

Phylogeny

The phylogenetic relationships of Felinae are shown in the following cladogram: