Felis catus
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English: Domestic cat
German: Hauskatze
French: Chat domestique
Spanish: Gato dom‚stico
Distribution areas
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The domestic cat is bred in a number of
varieties throughout all of the inhabited
continents. The animal probably originated
from the species, Felis silvestra lybica,
found in North Africa.
Description of the fur Transverse section
---------------------- of a guard hair, 1000x
Cat skins are from 60 to 75 cm long. The
coats have a high density of hairs with a good proportion of the fine fibres.
The undercoat is grey or blue-grey in colour. The guard hairs are relatively
soft, and brown-grey or yellow-grey in colour. The longest coarse hairs
measure up to 35 mm.
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Felis catus
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English: Domestic cat
German: Hauskatze
French: Chat domestique
Spanish: Gato dom‚stico
Structure of the hair
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The microscopic structure of the skin
surface is furrowed; the hair follicles are
wide with straight edges and, on average,
contain clusters of 3 to 5 fibres.
The fine fur fibres are circular or
slightly oval in cross-section. The The surface structure
diameter is from 10 to 20 µm and the of the skin, 40x
cuticular scales are cornet-like with a
smooth scale surface and straight margins. The medulla is wide, unbroken and
central symmetrical-shaped in cross-section. The overall pattern of the
medulla belongs to the uniserial ladder type. The infilling substance has a
perforated sheet-like structure.
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Felis catus
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English: Domestic cat
German: Hauskatze
French: Chat domestique
Spanish: Gato dom‚stico
The intermediate fibres have a circular
or ellipsoidal cross-section with a
diameter of from 25 to 40 µm. The cuticular
scales are flat edge-shaped or petal-like.
The surface is non-regularly grooved; the
scale margins are straight. The medullar
column is wide, unbroken and central
symmetrical-shaped in cross-section. The
overall medullar pattern belongs to the A group of hairs of the fine
uniserial ladder type with a perforated and guard type, 600x
sheet-like infilling material.
The guard hairs are from 40 to 80 µm in diameter and circular or
ellipsoidal in cross-sectional outline. The cuticular surface is covered by
even tile-like scales with a smooth surface and straight, or sometimes
rippled, scale margins. The medulla is wide, unbroken, central
symmetrical-shaped in cross-section and belongs to the spongy-lattice-like
type. The structure of the medullar infilling substance is foam-like.
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Felis catus
-----------
English: Domestic cat
German: Hauskatze
French: Chat domestique
Spanish: Gato dom‚stico
Longitudinal section
of a fine fur fibre, 1000x
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|
Felis catus
-----------
English: Domestic cat
German: Hauskatze
French: Chat domestique
Spanish: Gato dom‚stico
Transverse section
of a guard hair, 200x
Numerical code for cat skin surface
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Surface of the skin: 3-2-3
Fine fur fibres: 1-5-1-1-2-1-1-1-2-10.21-12.21
Intermediate fibres: 1.2-10.11-3-1-2-1-1-1-2.8-25.41-15.25
Guard hairs: 1.2-2.4-1-1.2-2-1-1-6-5-40.81-25.35
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