15/09/2025
Evolutionary biologist Anjali Goswami calls cats “evolutionarily perfect” because they’ve mastered one ecological role so completely that little about them has changed for millions of years.
From tiny housecats to lions and tigers, felines remain nearly identical in form, with skulls so similar that experts can hardly tell them apart.
Unlike bears, which evolved into varied diets and lifestyles, cats specialize as sleek, solitary hunters.
Their evolutionary stasis reflects not weakness but success: refining a design so effective that rivals can’t outcompete it. Evolution doesn’t always favor variety, sometimes it rewards perfection in one role.
