"Mayailurus iriomotensis" was the scientific name proposed by in 1967 for the Iriomote cat. Imaizumi pointed out that, compared to other leopard cats, the Iriomote cat retained some especially primitive features. Judging from these characteristics, he estimated that the Iriomote cat evolved as a species sometime between ten million years ago in the Miocene epoch and three million years ago during the Pliocene epoch. He also thought that they shared many primitive characteristics with fossils of the extinct genus "Metailurus". He emphasized these points, stating that the Iriomote cat and "Metailurus" shared a common ancestor sometime between ten million and five million years ago, and from that he deducted that the Iriomote cat's ancestors must have widened its range from mainland Asia to Iriomote and other areas beginning three million years ago. It appears to be a very ancient species, a ‘missing link’, nearer to the common root of the cat tribe than any other extant species.