Cat member of the cat family, the felids, which are a rapidly evolving family of mammals that share a common ancestor only 10–15 million years ago and include lions, tigers, cougars and many others. Within this family, domestic cats ("Felis catus") are part of the genus "Felis", which is a group of small cats containing about seven species (depending upon classification scheme). Members of the genus are found worldwide and include the jungle cat ("Felis chaus") of southeast Asia, European wildcat ("F. silvestris silvestris"), African wildcat ("F. s. lybica"), the Chinese mountain cat ("F. bieti"), and the Arabian sand cat ("F.
Cat rapid eye movement sleep often accompanied by muscle twitches, which suggests they are dreaming. Although wildcats are solitary, the social behavior of domestic cats is much more variable and ranges from widely dispersed individuals to feral cat colonies that gather around a food source, based on groups of co-operating females. Within such groups, one cat is usually dominant over the others. Each cat in a colony holds a distinct territory, with sexually active males having the largest territories, which are about 10 times larger than those of female cats and may overlap with several females' territories. These territories are marked