text: Felidae - Everything2.com
  (thing) by Segnbora-t Thu Apr 27 2000 at 2:57:25
  Felidae is the cat family within the order Carnivora. There are thirty-seven species of wild cats as well as the domestic cat, a subspecies of the wildcat.
  The cats are divided into three subfamilies: Acinonychinae (cheetah), Felinae (small cats), and Pantherinae (big cats).
  All cats are carnivores, flexible and sharp-toothed, and have retractable claws. Most have fur markings for camouflage, and even some that in their adult state are all one color, such as the lion and cougar, are born with markings. They all have raspy tongues which aid in stripping meat from bone on their prey.
  Genus Acinonyx:
  Genus Lynx:
  Canadian lynx (North American lynx)
  Iberian lynx (Spanish lynx)
  Genus Felis:
  wildcat/Sylvestris lybica cattus (common domesticated cat) -- the two are subspecies of the same species
  (thing) by locke baron Mon Oct 27 2008 at 12:59:20
  Felidae is the taxonomic family of the cats, and is the most strictly carnivorous family of the Carnivora. It comprises three extant and two extinct subfamilies. The living subfamilies are the Pantherinae (the big cats), Felinae (small cats) and Acinonychinae (cheetahs); the extinct subfamilies are the Machairodontinae (sabretooth cats) and Proailurinae (primitive cats). Recent genetic studies have cast doubt on the validity of placing cheetahs in their own subfamily, however – there is considerable evidence that they are more closely related to the Felinae than originally assumed. Historically, cats have been classified largely according to morphology, nowadays they are more frequently classified based on genetic similarity; this has led to quite a few changes in feline taxonomy.
  All cats are carnivores and most are exclusively so. With the exception of the cheetah, all cats have retractable claws. Like most carnivores, cats have large, robust canine teeth; this was especially notable in the extinct Machairodontinae, the sabre-toothed cats, but the trait persists. The clouded leopard and Bornean clouded leopard have the largest canine teeth relative to their body size of any living predator: indeed, the teeth of these cats are similar in size to those of the tiger, which is more than twice their length and up to six times their mass. Cryptic coloration is common as well, and even some cats which have single-colored coats as adults are spotted as kittens, examples of this are the lion, cougar and Canadian lynx.
  Traditionally, Pantherinae consisted of the roaring cats, though nowadays three other cats, which cannot roar, are grouped in this subfamily. Considerable debate is centered over recent genetic findings that suggest that the snow leopard is actually the most basal of the pantherines. It is usually placed in its own genus, Uncia, but these more recent findings would place it in Panthera, making it the only member of that genus that is unable to roar.
  Panthera tigris - Tiger (Largest of all cats)
  Panthera uncia, formerly Uncia uncia - Snow leopard
  Neofelis nebulosa - Clouded leopard
  Neofelis diardii - Bornean clouded leopard
  The subfamily Acinonychinae, in addition to being disputed, contains only a single genus and species. The extinct american cheetah, Miracinonyx, is believed to be an example of parallel evolution, rather than a particularly close relative. Newer research suggests that both lineages descended independently from a puma-like common ancestor, which was also likely the ancestor of the modern Puma genus. The cheetah also displays most of the features associated with the small cats, other than size. It can purr, unlike any of the pantherines, and also unlike most other large cats, adult cheetahs mew. In most other cats, mewing is mostly limited to kittens.
  Acinonyx jubatus - Cheetah (Fastest of all land animals)
  The subfamily Felinae consists of the small cats. Though referred to as small, there are several larger members. The cougar, Puma concolor can be over 2m in length and up to 100kg in weight, making it larger in the general case than the leopard or snow leopard, and both the Eurasian lynx and the caracal can exceed 25kg. The smallest member of the Felinae is the black-footed cat, about the size of a half-grown domestic kitten at less than 1.5kg fully grown.
  All members of Felinae have some similarities, however. All of them can purr both while inhaling and exhaling, and nearly all have spots or other camouflaging markings as kittens. Many retain these markings as adults, too. Many small cat species have visually distinctive features, such as spotted coat patterns or tufted ears. All are aggressive hunters, using a variety of hunting styles. Some, like the bobcat, may take prey many times their own size, while others like the caracal or serval are capable of leaping over 3 meters vertically to catch birds in flight.
  Caracal caracal - Caracal (AKA Persian lynx, though it's not very closely related to the lynxes.)
  Catopuma badia - Bay cat (Not to be confused with the Bay lynx, a synonym for the bobcat)
  Catopuma temminickii - Asian golden cat
  Felis bieti - Chinese Mountain cat
  Felis chaus - Jungle cat
  Felis manul - Pallas's cat (AKA Manul)
  Felis margarita - Sand cat
  Felis nigripes - Black-footed cat (Smallest of all cats)
  Felis silvestris - Wildcat
  Felis silvestris catus - Domestic cat (Some sources classify the domestic cat as its own species, Felis catus instead.)
  Leopardus braccatus - Pantanal cat
  Leopardus geoffroyi - Geoffroy's cat
  Leopardus jacobitus - Andean Mountain cat
  Leopardus pajeros - Pampas cat
  Leopardus tigrinus - Oncilla
  Leptailurus serval - Serval (Closest living relative of the caracal.)
  Lynx canadensis - Canadian lynx
  Lynx pardinus - Iberian lynx (Rarest of all cat species)
  Pardofelis marmorata - Marbled cat
  Prionailurus bengalensis - Leopard cat
  Prionailurus iriomotensis - Iriomote cat
  Prionailurus planiceps - Flat-headed cat
  Prionailurus rubiginosus - Rusty-spotted cat
  Prionailurus viverrinus - Fishing Cat
  Profelis aurata - African golden cat (Closest living relative of the caracal and serval. There is ongoing dispute about its proper classification.)
  The Machairodontinae, or sabre-toothed cats, were a group of large, tiger-like cats which lived from the Miocene to the late Pleistocene eras. There were two broad groups of them, the dirk-toothed cats and the scimitar-toothed cats. The dirk-tooths are the sabre-toothed tigers that most are familiar with, with long, flat upper canine teeth. The scimitar-tooths have shorter, stouter canines and are generally smaller and lankier, built more like a cheetah than like a lion. The odd Xenosmilus was the exception, having stout scimitar-teeth, but having the more leonine build of the dirk-toothed cats.
  Many things are unknown about the Machairodonts. Though they are often likened to the modern tiger, the degree to which this simile is accurate is uncertain. Evidence suggests that they should have been able to roar, but the same skeletal evidence suggests that the snow leopard should be able to, and yet it cannot. Artists have reconstructed various Machairodonts as looking like sabre-toothed lions, cougars, jaguars, cheetahs and even lynx. Forest-dwelling species may indeed have had tiger-like markings, as they would have served as effective camouflage, but this is little more than conjecture, and they may have looked quite different from any modern cat. Their hunting techniques were almost certainly different.
  There were a large number of sabre-toothed animals which were not cats; these include the marsupial Thylacosmilus, the Barbourfelidae and the Nimravidae.
  Scimitar-toothed Machairodont genera
  Dirk-toothed Machairodont genera
  Sources: Wikipedia, "1996 Taxonomic and Legal Status of the Felidae" by Alan Shoemaker, lots of assorted pages on carnivores, cats and mammals in general across the internet.