How close are house cats related to lions and/or tigers ?

# Phylum

# Order

# Suborder

# Family

# Genus

# Species

Remember from school? Cats (house) and Cats (Big and Circus) and everycat inbetween are all in the same Family, Felidae. Then they start to differ. The house cats are in Genus Felius. the Lions and Tigers in Genus Panthera.

The small cats do not roar, and the big cats do. It has to do with the way the bones in their thorats are arranged.

The small cats are more closely related to each other than they are to the Big cats. But all cats are more closly related to each other than they are to weasels.

Have a look at these articles and compare the details -

- on domestic cats - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat

- on wild cats, which our cats are descended from -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_cat

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_wild_cat

- notice how they're the same species - Felis silvestris.

Tigers and lions are both a separate genus and species -

Panthera tigris - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger

Panthera leo - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion

So tigers and lions are the same genus - more closely related to each other than to the cat family, Felis.

But our domestic cats are closely related to wild cats!

Actually, you can read more about the path of life', which shows how all animals, from bacteria to mammals including humans, are related to each other, in Richard Dawkin's excellent book, "The Ancestor's Tale" -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ancestor%27s_Tale

completly related species.. :)

all cats are cats

just like all humans are humans..

we just have different types :)