Claim: A lion is a carnivore.

The biological family Felidae is a lineage of carnivorans that includes the cats . A member of this family is also called a felid .   The characteristic features of cats have evolved to support a carnivorous lifestyle , with adaptations for ambush or stalking and short pursuit hunting . They have gracile and muscular bodies , strong flexible forelimbs and retractable claws for holding prey , dental and cranial adaptations for a strong bite , and often have characteristic striped or spotted coat patterns for camouflage . Cats are obligate carnivores , meaning they are dependent on nutrients in animal flesh for survival , and because of the large proportion of meat in their diet are sometimes referred to as hypercarnivores . Of the 13 terrestrial families in the order Carnivora , they are the strictest carnivores .   Living cats belong to two subfamilies , the Pantherinae and Felinae . The former comprises the `` big cats '' -LRB- the tiger , lion , jaguar , leopard , snow leopard , clouded leopard and Sunda clouded leopard -RRB- . Felinae comprises all the non-pantherine cats , which range in size from the small rusty-spotted cat to the big cat-sized puma and includes such diverse forms as the lynx , ocelot , serval and cheetah , as well as the domestic cat .   The first cats emerged during the Oligocene , about 25 million years ago , with the appearance of Proailurus and Pseudaelurus . The latter species complex was ancestral to two main lines of felids , the cats in the extant subfamilies and a third major group of extinct cats , which are assigned to the subfamily Machairodontinae . The machairodonts included the saber-toothed cats such as the Smilodon . The `` false sabre toothed cats '' , the Barbourofelidae and Nimravidae , are not true cats , but are closely related and together with Felidae and other cat-like carnivores -LRB- hyaenas , viverrids and mongooses -RRB- make up the feliform carnivores .