Sure looks like a cat, though–doesn’t it?
Poor Hoplophoneus! All these years, an ancestor to the famous saber-toothed cat–only to be cast out of the cat fraternity altogether.
I am just told there’s another doctor appointment this morning and I have to hurry if I want anything to eat before 1 p.m. And then there’s the hospital this afternoon. So I’d better grab a bite to eat.
Yep, food is pretty important to keep your strength up, and that is what we want for you. See you later- blessings.
The system of taxonomy comes from an evolutionary mindset, but if we think in terms of created kinds, we might classify differently.
For example, Cheetahs and Mountain Lions are both “cats”, and medium sized, but they are quite different from one another. Are they the same biblical “kind”? My understanding of kinds would be inter-fertility, and I sincerely doubt that a mountain lion and a cheetah could be crossbred to create viable offspring.
So the Hoplophoneus may be cat-like, but not part of any known feline “kind”. It really comes down to what the word “cat” actually means?
The suborder Feliformia describes cat-like animals, but includes hyenas, and mongoose like animals. So Feliformia includes hyenas, which most people think of as being related to dogs.
My point here is that taxonomy, comes down to a blend of scientific fact, and judgement calls. All categorization has an arbitrary element. When God created Adam, He tasked him with nam8ng the animals. All we really know is that all the biblical kinds were here at this time, but species we know today were not necessarily there. The Cat “kind” existed, but were there Lions, Tigers, Jaguars, Leopards, Mountain Lions, Cheetahs, Servals, House Cats, etc? No living human could possibly know.
Grizzly Bears and Polar Bears are inter-fertile, and can produce viable offspring. They are different species, but the same kind. Kinds can adapt, and relatively quickly. Peppered Moths are an example of adaptation within a kind, but no new genetic information is being produced. These adaptations were provisioned by God, as part of creation.
So this cat that is not a cat, may well be a different kind, or perhaps a genetic expression of the cat kind which no longer occurs and the genetic information to create that kind has been bred out of current populations among the Cat kind. We will learn when all is restored, at God’s due time.