The cat gap is a period in the fossil record of approximately 25 million to 18.5 million years ago in which there are few fossils of cats or cat-like species found in North America. The cause of the "cat gap" is disputed, but it may have been caused by changes in the climate (global cooling), changes in the habitat and environmental ecosystem, the increasingly hypercarnivorous trend of the cats (especially the nimravids), volcanic activity, evolutionary changes in dental morphology of the Canidae species present in North America, or a periodicity of extinctions called van der Hammen cycles.[1]
- ^ T. J. Meehan; L. D. Martin (2003). "Extinction and re-evolution of similar adaptive types (ecomorphs) in Cenozoic North American ungulates and carnivores reflect van der Hammens cycles" (PDF). Naturwissenschaften. 90 (3): 131–135. Bibcode:2003NW.....90..131M. doi:10.1007/s00114-002-0392-1. PMID 12649755. S2CID 21117744. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-05-24. Retrieved 2008-11-28.
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