Rank Species | ||
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Similar Felis attica, Pseudaelurus, Proailurus lemanensis, Miacidae, Lynx issiodorensis | ||
Felis lunensis (Martelli's cat) is an extinct felid of the subfamily Felinae. Around 12 million years ago, the genus Felis appeared and eventually gave rise to many of the modern small cats. Felis lunensis was one of the first modern Felis species, appearing around 2.5 million years ago in the Pliocene. Fossil specimens of F. lunensis have been recovered in Italy and Hungary. Fossil evidence suggests the modern European wildcat Felis silvestris may have evolved from F. lunensis during the Middle Pleistocene. This has resulted in F. lunensis occasionally being considered a subspecies of Felis silvestris.
The holotype specimen first described by the naturalist Ugolino Martelli in 1906 is now preserved in the collections of the University of Florence in Italy.