Re: PURRING

["tons" <tons@netside.com>]

I'm not certain, but I think that cheetah do not purr.  They are big cats,
but not Pantera of course.  More nit picking.

Michael Teuton

----------
> From: darren.naish@port.ac.uk
> To: dinosaur@usc.edu
> Subject: PURRING
> Date: Monday, March 09, 1998 8:39 AM
> 
> How the thread wound round to this I have no idea, but, anyway, Dann 
> Pigdon wrote..
> 
> > AFAIK only cats in the genus Felis pur. I don't think any of the
> > Panthera do (I know that lions don't anyway). Nit picking, I know,
> > but it's so rarely that I'm right about something, I'm trying to
> > bring the percentage up to at least 51%.  :)
> 
> Nope. All cats purr - yes, even the big ones. A primary difference 
> between _Panthera_ cats and all the others (there is no true big 
> cat/small cat dichotomy as people use to think) is that _Panthera_ 
> cats have a fully ossified hyoid which can only vibrate on 
> exhalation. Therefore _Panthera_ cats only purr on out-breaths.
> 
> Other cats, in contrast, have an incompletely ossified hyoid which 
> can vibrate both on exhalation and inhalation, viz. purring on in- 
> breaths and out-breaths. In theory, therefore, if you hear purring 
> but cannot see the purrer, you could work out if it was a _Panthera_ 
> cat or not. This is why some zoologists believe that the Nunda 
> (=Mngwa), a large grey cat from east Africa unknown from specimens, 
> is a large _Profelis_ (golden cat). 
> 
> Purring, as a low-frequency noise that obscures the whereabouts of 
> its origin, benefits mutual grooming and bonding in social cats when 
> they den in obscured areas. One more thing: it is said that when you 
> gently squeeze a cat's trachea, it will stop purring. This never 
> works when I try it.
> 
> "To die would be the best adventure of all"
> 
> DARREN NAISH
> darren.naish@port.ac.uk