“Scientists Discover Gigantic Prehistoric Cat in a Neglected Museum Drawer”
This makes sense to me, because although I’m not a cat fancier I hear they often like to hide in drawers.
Case in point:
Question is, how does the cat close the drawer?
And in other cat-related news, one of my least favorite musicals on earth is being made into an animated film.
I’m glad to know I’m not the only person who hated the musical “Cats.”
At 2,888 lbs., one must wonder what the rest of the animal world looked like? That is, what’s for dinner for such a creature?
I’m glad to know I’m not the only person who hated the musical “Cats.”
Interesting. We saw it the first season and saw it again with six teenagers. One of them insisted he hated musicals and didn't want to go but he came out humming the tunes. It made a difference that we saw it in the London theater which was quite small and intimate. The cats were climbing into the kids’ laps .
“what’s for dinner for such a creature?”
Whatever it wants.
😉
heh, zing!
Felines are interesting creatures, and as the saying goes, curious.
because although I’m not a cat fancier
No surprise there. Cats have handsome fur which they maintain in immaculate condition. They’re not inclined to be the meat-and-potatoes of the cosmetology trade whose work you admire.
“Question is, how does the cat close the drawer?”
I’ve seen my cat attempt this but fail.
You get your flexible flyer feline body inside the drawer with your fur face facing outwards. Then you push on the wood above the drawer so that your fur butt pushes agains the back of the drawer. Since the top of the drawer does not have wood flush with the top of the drawer frame no pinched paws ensue and the drawer is flush. My cat is too clumsy to get into a position to do that herself so she just gives up and wallows in the fresh laundry of the open drawer until I evict her.
Schrödinger didn’t say how big it was either.
I have lived in Africa. This story doesn’t shock me.
Great video, interesting analysis of the jaw of the Simbakubwa kutokaafrika.
It was “part of an extinct group of mammals called hyaenodonts, which were apex predators in Africa for 45 million years after the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs.”
I was thinking about how successful animal species get bigger over time, including humans, thru selection. But after sudden climate changes, can’t select for smaller “fast enough” to survive. Also thinking about how tall women probably have fewer children, and fewer marriages, than short women. Probably the opposite of men, with tall men having more kids, and being more likely to be married.
Evolutionary selection is so often interesting.
That was a really big cat.
Hyaenodonts were not actually cats or cats ancestors, while somewhat resemble them both in physical appearance and life styles. This is one of the many examples of parallelism, when phylogeneticaly different groups evolve in similar fashion and independently acquire the same or similar traits. This pervasive feature of evolution demonstrates how restricted and canalized it actually is, not so much shaped by natural selection but using it as a tool for achieving its preformated and preordained goals.
Man, I’ve seen some really big women in recent years – as in standing in a checkout line at a big box store and noticing 4 or more at once in the checkouts. I’ve had to ask myself if I really was 6’1″ and over 200 lbs and worked out, or if I was really 5’7, and 150 lbs. These giantesses towered over me by 4 or more inches, were probably 100 lbs heavier and looked like they could take one hell of a punch.
Assortative selection, I suppose
My cat used to open up the lower kitchen cabinet and then climb up the back side to get into the kitchen drawer above it. (Before he starting doing that, it had been the silver ware drawer.) It was hard to believe he could fit in the drawer. But I’d open it, and there his little face would be looking at me like I spoiled his fun.
He was an Abyssinian cat. And insane. He was always finding ways to get in trouble.
I miss the little rat b*****d.
Sat through that musical once. Beat me with a baseball bat.
I despise feral cats and shoot them whenever I can. Cats are disgusting creatures who contribute little to humanity, unlike canines. And they kill millions and millions of birds in the USA every year.
Cats contributed to humanity a lot, most importantly our ability to keep grain for a good portion of a year until the next harvest. That is why they were elevated to the status of gods in ancient Egypt. Without them, we could find in our granaries only lots of mice crapping in spring.
Sergey: Excellent point.
Also, cats are observant and very good engineers.
Many, many, many years ago ours learned two things:
1. If constipated, the thing to do is to climb up onto the (open) commode and sit there more-or-less upright, with lower legs spread across the seat-rim, just as we humans do. (I’m pretty sure many cats have figured this out.)
2. If the sound of the furnace-fan bugs you, the thing to do is to climb up onto the back of the chair or couch that’s parked directly under the thermostat, and try to paw the dial or the lever into the “Off” setting. (Unfortunately, cats are not equipped to manipulate things.)
Love the drawer stories above. I haven’t seen that, but I certainly believe it.
. . .
Yes, well, I thought the musical just rather boring — and I did see it on stage, in Chicago’s Auditorium Theater (our version of On Broadway). Maybe that’s why the only thing I remember about it was that I was bored.
This is good news. I hope we can recreate this animal. And put it in a zoo, where I can stick my arm in its cage.
https://www.npr.org/2019/03/11/702386685/selfie-taking-woman-apologizes-after-jaguar-attack-at-arizona-zoo
Also, NEO, I know how the cat closes the drawer. And how the cat plans to open the drawer. But we predators have an agreement. And by predator I mean the killing-animals-for-meat kind of predator, not the little kids kind. Are we clear?
We don’t give away each others secrets. Otherwise, from the cat’s perspective that sparrow wouldn’t be breakfast.C’mon, NEO, you want the whole world to know how cats open and close drawers?
I’m a dog person, not a cat person. But still, I like cats. When I was in junior college a wannabe boyfriend gave my sister a kitten. I know on a certain level what message he was trying to send. Because I know how to spot pathetic, and how not to commit it.
So, since I was living in the converted basement (my choice) I inherited this cat. Who proceeded to ingratiate itself to me by sleeping in my bed. One morning when I was half awake, half asleep I hear him purring. And then he pounces (must have been Republican cat, thank God he didn’t seize) and plants both front feet on my eyeballs.
I don’t know how far I threw that cat. I heard him hit off the wall. Go ahead, report me to the SPCA or whatever. The cat’s been dead for over fifteen years. And in any case it was pure reflex. Something is attacking the eyes, get rid of it. I did it, you would have done it, too.
So we bonded. Me and the cat. Who like most animals named himself. We affectionately call him “Killer.” We had many happy memories together, particularly because he treated the L-shaped sofa like the banked NASCAR track at Daytona and cause visitors to dive for the floor in abject fear. He would go ripping along the back of the sofa. You could hear him using the tools that cat in the vid uses to open and close drawers. The sound of which I think added to the terror as our guests dove toward the floor.
And I was sufficiently man primeval I found the whole situation funny. The cat eventually developed cancer at, I believe, 18 years of age. My dad who always disliked that cat didn’t need too much encouragement from the vet who diagnosed that cat with the words, “C,mon, it’s just a cat. And it’s 18. Do you seriously want to pay me to try to keep it alive?”
But seriously, kitten, thanks for the laughs. I may want to get another one, now that I[m reminded. They’re making them spaniel-sized now.
https://www.newsweek.com/kangaroo-eating-maine-coon-may-be-worlds-longest-cat-611197
I don’t know if this is good news or not. Tomcats like my Killer already scaled 800 pounds in their own mind. On the other hand if Chinese scientists succeed in implanting human minds into apes we may need favorably-disposed large killer cats on our side.
Steve57:
I was once asleep in the middle of the night, deeply asleep, when a cat jumped from about a ten-foot height onto my stomach, POW. Talk about throwing a cat across the room! And it wasn’t even my cat; I was a guest in someone’s house. I also let out a stream of sceamed expletives that woke everyone else up.
So I take it, my cat-throwing friend, that my words won’t count against me.
The h3ll of it all is, I like cats. I didn’t hold a grudge against Killer because he bounced himself off my eyeballs. After that we were like a team. Unfortunately, despite the fact I am favorably disposed toward cats figure the odds of me getting one from the shelter now that they know by my own words I once threw one against a wall.
Bonus points for admitting you swore like a Sailor. I was a Sailor up until just over a decade ago. That was basically my whole world.
I didn’t constantly walk around swearing like a Sailor. I could have, but my parents paid for a private school education where I could develop a vocabulary far more cutting and colorful.
But I could still swear like a Sailor and would have if a cat dropped down on me from a ten foot height in the middle of the night. Good on you, NEO.
Speaking about cats and getting thrown into walls, my favorite made-for-TV sport is Sumo. I’m amazed it hasn’t caught on here. In your typical hour you have maybe ten minutes of Sumo. The rest of the hour is tied up in papal nuncios yelling their heads off and of course the salt throwing ritual. Plenty of time to go to the bathroom (you do wash your hands, right?) and grab another beer.
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/tv/sumo/
When Sumo finally happens, as it must, as it always does, you are likely to see the most amazing things you have ever seen in the world of sports.
Here’s where I bring it back to the subject of cats. Please note how clever I am.
During the nineties one of my favorite rikishi (the Japanese term for sumo wrestler; literally “strong man”) was Kyokudozan. For a rikishi he was a light weight at 225 pounds. As you will note if you follow my link a Sumo match begins when the two opponents mutually agree in what amounts to a three point stance in American football.
It’s not a perfect analogy; I’m using it as a working definition.
Kyokudozan leaps straight up, puts his hand his opponent’s shoulder, lands behind him and shoves him out of the ring.
Ever since the Al Gore invented the intertubes I’ve been searching for that video evidence because no human being could have invented that move. Maybe a cat (heh heh). And the look on the 300 plus pound opponent’s face was priceless. “I was facing a guy a second ago, now he’s gone. Where did he go? Oh s*** he’s behind me.”
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