Felidae is the biological family of the cats; a member of this family is called a felid. They are the most strictly carnivorous mammals of the nine families in the order Carnivora. The first felids emerged during the Oligocene, about 30 million years ago. The most familiar felid is the Domestic Cat or House Cat, which first became associated with humans about 10,000 years ago. Its wild relative, the Desert Wildcat, still lives in the Near East and Africa, although habitat destruction has restricted its range.
Other well-known members of the felid family include big cats such as the Lion, the Tiger, the Leopard, the Jaguar, the Cougar, and the Cheetah, and other wild cats such as the lynxes and the Caracal. The extinct subfamily Machairodontinae, including the "saber-toothed cats" such as the well known Smilodon, were also true felids, in contrast to similar animals such as Thylacosmilus or Nimravidae.
